(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you too concerning as long as she stays there and gets treated like that. There's been a lot of back and forth with her, isn't there? Just in general with her health having these issues. She'll improve and then send her. Okay. Yeah, we'll pray for Veronica. Just pray that God will heal her. That she can be released quickly from the hospital care. Very good. Is there any other updates? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Okay. Oh, no. On top of all of it. Okay. So those of you who didn't hear Mrs. Masler talk to Rebecca Gonzalez, she's been recovering from the surgeries on her legs, but she's still experiencing some of the symptoms. Like it helped, but it hasn't healed her. She's not well as a result of those surgeries, but she's still recovering. It could take still quite a while to fully recover from that. Now on top of it, she has a sinus infection as well. So pray that her immunity will get back up and she could get completely well, and then I think she also had another doctor visit like a neurologist or somebody to continue seeking treatment. Did she say anything about that or no? Okay. Very good. All right. Well, yes. So please thank you for the update for that about Rebecca and continue to pray for her as well. Anyone else have any updates? Anything at all? All right. Very good. Before we continue next page, a little bit of housekeeping. Children, stay out of the wood chips, please. Right off to the side, right over here. They're all over the place, on the windowsills, on the back of my car, which makes me think it might be one of my children. Don't know, didn't see it. Don't play with that stuff, please. We want everything to look really nice, and when you go out there and make messes and mess everything up, an adult has to go by and clean it up and keep our place looking really nice. So please, please don't do that stuff. If it was my child, I'll speak to myself, but parents, please try to keep an eye on what your kid are doing. I know you're not always watching every single second everything that they do, but try to find out if your kids are making mess, just be responsible and clean it up. It's not a big deal, right? Just let's try to keep everything so that we don't have to do this. Speaking of putting work on other people, cleaning right when we clean, try to also be very respectful if you want to eat stuff, and you see other people cleaning and vacuuming, and you're eating things that gets like crumbs all over the place, do that outside, please, or stay in one place and then clean up after yourself, right? Don't be making a big mess and going, ''Oh, hey, can you come over here?'' Don't do that, don't do that. All right, enough of that. Just be respectful at the end of the day for this space that we are all sharing here. All right, the December challenge, the singing challenge, a lot of fun. Best part about this challenge is when you're in church, and that's not the best part actually, I take it that way, it's not the best part, but the easiest part is when you go to church, if you sing the songs in church, then you don't have to remember to do it later on throughout the day. So we sing eight songs on Sundays and four on Wednesdays, so you've got to sing those four hymns. Also, don't resist that urge if you habitually listen to worldly music to not play your Spotify or not turn on the radio. I mean, does anyone even listen to radio anymore? I don't know, everything changes. But resist the urge to listen to worldly music. You got to go cold turkey this month and not listen to any of it, and replace it with singing those four hymns, and you will be blessed for doing so if you participate with that. Christmas caroling, December 16th, 3.30, we meet up here, you'll get some instructions, we'll separate into groups. On the streets, four o'clock, go out for roughly an hour and then make it back here and we'll have a meal. So please, if you didn't sign up for this, please do so. If you plan on eating with us, if you're going to just take off and go home or whatever, that's fine. We don't need you to sign up, but I just need to know if you're planning on eating a meal with us so we can make sure we have enough food for everybody that is here. New church plants, we've got a few prospects that Brother Carter is going to be looking at more in depth. We've been talking about this recently. So it's a little bit more than I was wanting to, I was budgeting for, but the lease terms are like five years. So our church is five years old, right? So it's hard to plan for a space that's going to be, who knows how fast the church is going to grow? I don't know, God knows that. But that's why we need your prayers, that God will lead us to a space that we can settle into, we can make it nice and functional and usable, and hopefully also not have to deal with some of the stress that other churches have had to deal with, with evictions and the protests and stuff like that too. So those are also things that I think about with the spaces. They're definitely not the most important thing or not even necessarily a deciding factor unless we have multiple options. But like here, we've got a great space to not have protesters because of the private property here and there's no real sidewalks. So have fun on the street or have fun down the hill on Jimmy Carter where no one could see you up here anyways. So that's a luxury that we have here. But all of those things are considerations. So please pray that God will help us to plan church in a good spot, that's going to work out for us, and that God will give myself and Brother Carter wisdom in making these decisions. Bible memory passage is listed there. We've got nine weeks to memorize these verses. You can get a prize if you could quote them word perfect before the deadline. Upcoming events, Christmas cookie exchange, December 24th, sign up for that. Please, if you want to participate in that, watch night service is New Year's Eve. After our evening service, we'll have a meal, and then hang out and enjoy some fellowship until midnight that evening. Then January 19th, we have pizza and movie night. Movie is a sequel to is Genesis history. So if you like creation science type of stuff, it's I think it's fascinating, it's really cool, but it is dry. It's not very funny, it's not entertaining depending on your definition of entertaining, but it is interesting, and they do present a lot of really cool facts and data that illustrate the creation and the flood and what happened to the earth. It's just really good compelling data supporting. Obviously, what we know is the truth anyways in the Bible. So that is going to be that Friday night and then of course a camping trip. On the back, we've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries through the month of December, and I think that is it for the announcements. Just to reiterate also that the Christmas caroling is also a birthday party for Luke Estrada at two o'clock. So before that, if you want to come and have a Nerf gun fight with in celebration of Luke's birthday, that'll be that same Saturday right here at two o'clock. So you're welcome to join us for that as well. With that, I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Peter. Thank you very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very. are being passed around if you can open your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 3. Again, that was the book of Colossians chapter 3. As we do customarily here in St. Paul Baptist Church, we read the entire passage as part of the Bible. Amen, church. Once again, that's the book of Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, the Bible reads, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, and the which ye also walked sometime when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in you in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body. And be ye thankful, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For ye serve the Lord Christ, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. And there is no respect of persons. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for the whole entire Bible. Thank you for this passage here. We also thank you for all the services and everything that's been done through this church, God. Thank you for the souls that were saved today. And God also for all those souls that we will reach in the future. And God, we thank you for Pastor Burzins and for the words that he's given us. And God, that you will fill him with your spirit. Allow for him to preach with boldness. Allow for our ears to be intended to your word and to learn something new today that we can take home with us and to also give to others to share. God, we praise you and thank you for all that you do. And cover us today as we also return home. God, we just praise you and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So my sermon this evening is a little bit different from kind of what I normally do. We're definitely going to look at some scripture, but I have a lot of other material than just Bible. And the title of my sermon is doctrinal music or doctrinal hymns. Right. And what I want to do here and I want to there's a few things that we're going to we're going to look at. And. We started off in Colossians, chapter three. If you look down there, verse number 16, the Bible says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And we see this this command, you know, let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And then continue saying, teaching and admonishing one another. And how do you how did God want us teaching and admonishing one another? In psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. So when we sing our music, our worship music or praise music, you know, we use the the the the monikers or the the taglines that a lot of the popular Christian is used worship and praise your worship and praise team, your worship and praise music. We want to make sure that it's doctrinally sound and not just darkly sound, but contains doctrine, like doctrine worthy of teaching. Worthy of admonishing, OK? The music is extremely important. And if we don't like. This isn't something and I want to start off with this and we're starting off with Colossians, three sixteen for a reason, because I don't want you to walk away thinking like, oh, Pastor Burns just has his personal preference against this style of music or whatever. No, this isn't about a preference. This is about looking to the word of God and going, what does God deem as important? What are the things that God says that he wants? When we see a command here that says we're supposed to teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It lists all three of those things, psalms and spiritual songs, together that they all should be functioning to be able to teach and admonish. Right now, the good thing is, is that we have Psalms to give us a very good backbone and understanding of how music should be, at least doctrinally speaking. And I mean, you don't get much better doctrine than just literally the word of God itself. Right. So the whole book of Psalms is a songbook. And and it is the word of God. The Holy Ghost spake as holy men of God were moved. Right. The man man spake, but Holy Ghost gave him the words for all the Book of Psalms. So you can't beat the doctrine in the Psalms. We know that. But if we're going to sing other songs or other music. To praise the Lord with that are not Psalms like the other two categories, hymns and spiritual songs. Since we see the importance given and we see the doctrine of what it's supposed to do. It makes sense that we would pattern the music that we are going to create, that we are going to sing, that we are going to praise the Lord with after the example of the Psalms that he's given us. So if you want to get a good idea of, hey, you know, what types of things should we sing about? Well, that's pretty easy to figure out what types of things. I mean, what what would cause you to rejoice? Right. But we can also just look at one hundred and fifty songs and just take a look at all the different things that your themes that are referenced in the Psalms. And a lot of it is deliverance, salvation. Right. Just praising the Lord because it's good, because his mercy endures forever, like like these types of kinds of reasons to be happy. Also, just very, very doctrinal things, historical things in some of these Psalms and just highlighting God's goodness and God's greatness. But you can see the way it's done in the Psalms. And none of the Psalms are simplistic little chants. They're not just repeating a phrase over and over and over. And even the one most repetitious song that there is has for his mercy endureth forever. Right. As like as alternating lines, alternating verses. It'll make a statement and say for his mercy endureth forever. Another statement for his mercy endureth forever. You make another statement. And it is a song of exaltation to the Lord. Right. And just completely magnifying and honoring God. And that's the point of that song as a high level. You know, just looking at it. But it's one song. Now, look, all the Psalms do magnify the Lord and his greatness. But that's kind of one like like there's one song that's really we call it kind of simplistic and there's some repetition to it. But it's not like the standard type for all of them. Does that make sense? And the reason I'm even making such a point of this is because if you look at a lot of the modern music today. You see tons of repetition. It's all extremely generic. Vague references to God. Maybe they'll throw in Jesus. Right. But overall, they just make statements and they'll say some things that. I mean, you could apply it to practically any religion. Unless it happens to say Jesus, then, you know. If you just threw that name, it's still that everything else would be identical to any other religion that's out there. And. I'm trying to figure out what order I want to do this in. I've got I've got an example. Because I don't know, and I've never been into that style of music. Right. The modern worship and praise that is really popular amongst contemporary Christianity. It's never been a thing that I've been interested in. That's why I don't want people. You're just preaching your opinion, Pastor Burzins. Well, no, we're going to. I went to in preparation. There's a organization, the CCLI. And I'm not super familiar with this, but I tried to find the best source on this. Where they collect data from all these churches, a lot of mega churches and these big churches that are singing these these praise songs because these songs are copyrighted. And you've got to get permission to even use these and a lot of times their services and streaming and everything else. So they collect data on what's popular and what's been popular for like at least the past decade in churches. And they kind of get a feel for what is being sung in churches with all these people. And, you know, just kind of like a large percentage of churches that are out there. So I was I just wanted to see I got the number one song that's on the list in the top 100 of the United States. Like as of today. Not cherry picking. Just what's the number one song and let's go with that and look at the lyrics to the song. And I'm going to read this for you. The lyrics. And what what you'll probably notice, as I did. Is the shallowness of the lyrics of these songs. And this one is just indicative. It just just happens to be the number one song. I didn't want to spend too much time just going song by song by song by song. I looked at a few of them and it's it's the same feel. And instead, what I also have an article that I found that I'm going to read. I'm going to try to read really quickly just to get through it. But where they did an analysis on these songs over the past 10 years. So without having to bring all of the evidence up and show you for yourself, I just wanted to kind of bring a summary. But you could check it out for yourself and prove it and see if this is true or not. OK. If this applies broadly or if it's if I'm just isolating and cherry picking and stuff like that. If you think I'm wrong, look it up for yourself. Right. And see what the truth is. I don't think I'm wrong here. But but with this song specific, it's called Goodness of God. OK. There's nothing wrong about singing about the goodness of God. We have plenty of songs in our in our hymn book. That sings about that, that, you know, expresses the goodness of God. Right. And so I'm not I'm not trying to just bash a song about like saying, well, why is God good? But what I want to pay attention to is is just the shallowness of the doctrine itself. And when we kind of look at this going, how much teaching is really going on in this music? So I'm going to read this for you. I'll read these lyrics. It says, I love you, Lord, for your mercy never fails me. All my day, all my days I've been held in your hands. From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. Now, just right off the bat, like this isn't a bad start to a song. And I'm not going to say that this song is bad. So don't get me wrong. It's not bad in the sense that like it's saying anything heretical or anything is false doctrine. Right. It's but but let's keep going here. And all my life you have been faithful. And all my life you have been so, so good with every breath that I am able. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire in the darkest night. You are close like no other. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend. And I have lived in the goodness of God. And all my life you have been faithful and all my life you have been so, so good with every breath that I am able. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God because your goodness is running after it's running after me. Your goodness is running after it's running after me with my life laid down. I'm surrendered now. I give you everything because your goodness is running after it's running after me. Because your goodness is running after it's running after me. Your goodness is running after it's running after me. With my life laid down. I'm surrendered now. I give you everything because your goodness is running after it keeps running after me. It keeps running after me. Stop! And all my life you have been faithful and all my life you have been so, so good with every breath that I am able. Oh, I'm going to sing of the goodness of God. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. Because all my life you have been faithful and all my life you've been so, so good with every breath that I am able. Oh, I am going to sing of the goodness of God. Oh, I'm going to sing of the goodness of God. That's the whole story. I read every, I left out the yas and the ohs. I have no idea how this song sounds, but I've got a mental image of probably what it's like. I bet you it's extremely emotional. Extremely emotional. It's going to have the music to just make you throw up your hands and close your eyes and sway and oh, the goodness of God, right? That's what it's designed for. And I'm not, I'm kind of making a joke at it, but I'm kind of not because it really is that type of music. And I spoke with someone about the contemporary Christian music and stuff like that that I know and they had expressed to me that, you know, because the subject of music came up and this person knew I'm a fundamentalist and I'm not for any of this stuff and things like that. And he said, well, you know, when I when I listen to this music, it's like I got to feel so close to God. And it's one of those arguments. It's all based on emotion. So you can't really have a very good logical discussion about things and kind of analyze and be like, well, wait a minute, though, I mean, we're supposed to teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. What are you really learning from this now? I mean, we weren't talking about this song specifically. This is this is this was an old conversation, but I'm just going like. Kind of weak. Kind of weak, if you ask me. And very, very repetitive. If you didn't catch that running after running after me. OK. But when we when we. When it comes to our emotions, look, God gave us emotions, it's not our emotions are bad, but this isn't how we decide what's right and wrong. If you left it up to how you feel, you know, a lot of sin feels good in the moment. Fornication feels good in the moment, right? Drunkenness, drug usage can feel good in that moment. And all the world's music can feel very good. To me, with my background, my history, I love music so much and I love all of the world's music. And it was almost like a drug for me. My wife's completely different. She really, you know, couldn't care less in general about music. But but I like like, man, I live, breathe, sleep, always having headphones, always having music. I was a guy on a sports team bringing my boombox. Always having music with me. And it feels like it could feel like a drug, like a high when you're listening to music. It does that to you. It has that impact. So it's kind of like, well, when I'm listening to Metallica, is that like me being close to God and I'm feeling all like like this feeling inside that's that's got me pumped up? Or some sappy love song that that gets you, you know, kind of weepy in the heart. It makes you feel that way, but that that doesn't mean that or indicate the presence of God. And what I would submit to you is that these modern songs that are being produced by these mega churches by and large. They're just mimicking what the world is already doing when they're putting out their music that they know it has that effect on people. And that's what people like. And it feels good. And it's something that you want to hear in your flesh. You want to feel that. And even better. Hey, let's let's associate this with God. Now you've got people that got worldly based music and they're disassociated. They've they've now associated this this music with God and with their worship and praise of God and that feeling with God. And that makes these musicians a lot of money. Because it's just. You know, instead, instead of going just out to the world and making their money that way and selling worldly stuff, they're doing it with in churches. And they're adding God and they're adding Jesus. But the music all sounds the same and has the same impact on your soul, on your spirit. Right. I'm going to read this article for you. This is from a website called religion news dot com. And I what I really wasn't even looking for this, I was looking for something else and this popped up and this is a very interesting article. I'm going to kind of I'm going to try to speed read this as much as possible. But it says there's a reason every hit worship song sounds the same. And it's true. There is a reason. And they do also. And in my limited exposure to them, it's just kind of like what it's like. I mean, they do this. The world does this in modern pop songs. They at this point, they've done enough study on the music. They can get whoever they want to be the front people of a band. And just supply them in crank out the music that they know will sell, that they know will be popular, that they know will get X amount of dollars. And they just need to have their whore and their whore monger going up there and being the mouthpiece and the image to whatever garbage they want to put out there. From the music industry, from the people writing the music and writing the lyrics and all that stuff. And a lot of bands, they don't even do any of that. And some of them do, of course. But I'm just saying like this is it's turning so corporate and they've got the pattern down so well and have studied it that it's like you can start applying this anywhere. And that's what they've been doing. And I'll read this article for you. And it's it's along the same lines saying there's a reason every hit worship song sounds the same. A new study found that the most popular worship songs come from a handful of mega churches with a knack for writing pop songs about what God will do for you. Article begins here, and this is by Bob Smith. And it was written April 11th, 2023. So it's recent rights this year. On Easter Sunday, the worship band at Bethel Community Church in Redding, California, opened the service with This is Amazing Grace. That's the title song, a 2012 hit that has remained one of the most popular worship songs of the past decade. Chances are thousands of other churches around the country also sang that song or one very similar to it. A new study found that Bethel and a handful of other mega churches have cornered the market on worship music in recent years, churning out hit after hit and dominating the worship charts. Which, by the way, that song that I just read for you was a Bethel music song. So that that's it. And I didn't connect these two. You know what I mean? Like like I wasn't trying to make this work. It's literally the number one song. And it's it's exactly what this article is stating back. And this is the number one song today. This article is written back in April. OK. The study looked at 38 songs that made the top 25 lists for CCLI and praise charts, which track what songs are played in churches. And this was important to me, was trying to find what is being sung or played in churches, because it's not necessarily the same as like a CD sales or something. This is supposed to be tracking what is actually being sung in churches. Because that's what I care about is is in what I'm what I'm teaching about is, you know, these songs and hymns, spiritual songs being done, especially in the churches. And they found that almost all had originated from one of four mega churches. All the songs in the study, which range from Our God and God is Able to The Blessing debuted on those charts between 2010 and 2020. Of the songs in the study, 36 had ties to a group of four churches, Bethel, Hillsong, a mega church headquartered in Australia, Passion City Church in Atlanta, which I've never even heard. Has anyone heard of that church? OK, so some people obviously I'm not from here. I haven't heard of it, but now maybe I've got something to something to look into a little bit more, which runs a popular youth conference that fills stadiums. And Elevation, a North Carolina congregation with ties to the Southern Baptist Convention. If you have ever felt like most worship music sounds the same, the study's authors wrote. It may be because the worship music you are most likely to hear in many churches is written by just a handful of songwriters from a handful of churches. The research team, made up of two worship leaders and three academics who study worship music, made some initial findings public Tuesday, April 11. More details from the study will likely be released in the coming weeks. Elias Dummer, worship leader and recording artist, said he and his colleagues have been watching changes in worship music over the past decade. They wanted to know how worship songs become popular among churches, he said. They also wanted to know how the business of producing and marketing songs is shaping the worship life of local churches. So part of the goal with their study was trying to see, well, one, what are the popular songs in the churches? But then, too, how does the marketing and the business side of the music industry for this Christian music, how does that actually affect or impact the actual churches that are going to be singing these songs? Dummer said many worship leaders believe the best songs become the most popular in churches. So he's saying that many of the worship leaders in these churches just think that, well, they're popular because they're the best songs. Right? Like, that's what you might normally want to think. They're like, oh, I mean, these are just the best songs, which is why they're rising to the top, because it's the best music. It's the best ones. They also believe those songs become popular because they work. People respond to them during worship services and want to sing them over and over. They work. They're calculated to work. But that's not exactly true. Dummer and his colleagues found many of the more recent hit songs were released as singles on Spotify and other streaming services, which helps fuel their popularity. There are actual mechanisms by which songs become the most significant, he said. It's not just whatever songs the Holy Spirit blesses that make it to the top of the charts. They're saying there's a lot more to this behind the scenes when they start releasing this music and pumping it up on the streaming services and getting it into the ears of the people in order to make it popular within the churches. So they're feeding this in to get people to listen to this and kind of almost forcing these songs to become popular. That's what he's describing here. For their study, researchers compared popular worship songs written before 2010 with those written from 2010 to 2020. Those earlier songs were often associated with individual worship leaders such as Chris Tomlin and Matt Redmond rather than with churches and came from a variety of sources. And I don't know these guys at all, so whatever. But beginning in 2010, the most popular new songs began to come from megachurch worship bands. And the most popular worship artists began affiliating with those churches. So the popular artists that were just putting out content now all of a sudden are starting to get like, hey, I think I'm going to get involved with this worship team at this megachurch because it's going to help my business. And it's going to have an influence on these big megachurches, which they kind of feed off of each other. Of the 38 songs in the study, 22 were initially released by the four megachurches with another eight songs released by artists affiliated with those churches. So they're coming from the churches or from people affiliated with the churches. Six more were either collaborations between artists from those churches or cover songs performed by those churches. That's like all of them because there's 38 songs in the study. Twenty two literally just came from the four megachurches. Eight more, which brings that total up to 30, were by the affiliates of those churches. And then six more were the collaboration. So that's 36 out of 38. All tied to those churches. Shannon Baker, a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor University, said the megachurch worship teams in the study also popularized songs from other artists such as Waymaker, a song written by Sinak, a well-known Nigerian musician, as well as great Are You Lord and Tremble. These bigger churches, even if they weren't involved in making the songs, platformed them, she said. Adam Perez, assistant professor of worship studies at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, said the foremost influential megachurches all come from the charismatic tradition of Protestant churches. All of them, he said, have a spirituality that believes God becomes present in a meaningful and powerful way when the congregation sings a particular style of worship song. Those songs become one of the primary ways of connecting with God rather than prayer, sacraments or other rituals because of their market success. These churches have changed the spiritual practices and sometimes even the theology of congregations from many traditions. The industry itself becomes this invisible hand, he said. We don't name the theology of praise and worship. We just assume it and we use this kind of song repertoire to reinforce it. The study did not look specifically at the lyrics of the most popular songs. Baker did say she's looking at those lyrics for a different project and found a few trends. For example, she said few of the most popular songs talk about the cross or salvation. Which is also true. Very few talk about those subjects. If you want something to praise God about, how about salvation? Like that, we do find quite a few songs about salvation, referencing salvation in our song books because it's like the greatest news ever. Right. And one of the best reasons to praise the Lord. And we see that in the Psalms as well, that salvation subject comes up frequently. Looking to God, my deliverer, right, God to save me, save me out of all my troubles. And that that theme comes up so frequently in the Psalms as well. They say this continuing on here is my last page. A lot of it is what is God doing for me now? And what is God promised to do for me in the future, she said. Baker said that in the past, artists or publishers would put out a song book or recordings of new worship songs. And then churches would pick out the songs in those collections that best fit their context. Now, she and other researchers wonder if these mega churches are driving which songs are used in worship. Where it's just kind of like they're just putting it out. And now all of a sudden these churches are just, they're not really picking anymore. It's pretty much is being picked for you based on popularity and the popularity of the congregation and stuff like that. The study is based on data about popular worship songs obtained by Mike Tapper, a religion professor at Southern Wesleyan University. Tapper and his colleague, Mark, I don't know how to pronounce that name, a worship pastor from New Brunswick, Canada, worked on a previous study about how quickly hit worship songs appear and then disappear. He said any concerns about the theology of the four mega churches or the recent troubles at Hillsong, which if you know anything about Hillsong, what a mess. I mean, talk about reprobate and just total wickedness going on there, which is that several pastors resign in scandal don't seem to affect the demand for their music. Like even though like a church like Hillsong just has all these problems, people don't care about that because they like the music. Well, so just listen to all the music. Yeah, the guys in charge are all just wicked as hell. But, you know, just keep on giving me the music because I like the music. And that is the control and the power that music has over people. To a large extent, music that and I know firsthand because when I was listening to what after I was saved, I'm still listening to worldly music and I didn't like what some of the lyrics said. I just like the song. Which is stupid. You know, in your mind, you're trying to separate these two and just be like, yeah, I don't really like when he says that. But I just want to keep listening to the song anyways, even songs that would blaspheme my savior, Jesus Christ. I would still voluntarily listen to it because I like the way the song felt. I like the song. And we need to be able to break that and not just willfully do something because of the feeling. Feeling doesn't make it right. And that's exactly what's happening here with people just going, yeah, I wish it came from someone else, but I like the music. And when it all sounds the same, doesn't matter, keep on cranking it out and it's going to keep on eating it up. Let's see, the fact that the worship music of megachurches has a bigger share of the worship market corresponds to the practice of worshipers. Payne doubts that scandals at churches such as Hillsong will affect the popularity of music because people have a relationship with the songs, not with church leaders. Payne said worship bands at the most popular megachurches have a knack for creating great pop songs. And they know how to connect with mass audiences, both in person and through streaming services. They can go toe to toe with some of the biggest acts in music, she said. Because that's all they are, is an act in music. It's people who instead of hitting the market from the world, they say, oh, maybe there's too much competition here, let's go over to the religious side. There's tons of Christians in the United States and I'm going to target that audience with my music and put out these generic songs, make it real generic, make it all sound the same, make it all feel real good. And people eat it up. Well, that's not the way things are done here. And we ought to be looking to our to our music and open up your hymnal for me. Because what this and this is like. Where I wanted to be a little bit more of the meat of the sermon. Is we're going to look at I pick just some real common popular songs that we sing here. And I want to draw attention to the doctrine. Because, again, with songs, it's easy when you when you especially you've been brought up with it, you know the song, you can sing it and oftentimes not even really think about it that much. But tonight, I wanted to put the focus and the spotlight on the doctrine that's being taught in the songs that we sing. And honestly, you ought to be thinking about the things as you're singing the praises to God. When we sing these songs and paying attention to the words, it's easy to just go on autopilot and sing the well-known songs. But but think about this. I mean, this is this is exactly what we do. You know, we've got so many. How often do you have people repeat John three sixteen back to you? You can't even you start to quote it and they finish it for you. And people hear that verse over and over and over again, but they don't ever really stop to think about it. Because if they did, they'd see, oh, wait, that whosoever believeth. Should not perish, would have everlasting life. Don't say anything about doing any good works, you know, and like so many people that trusting in the works or trusting and all this other stuff. They have that verse memorized, but they don't stop to actually think about it. And I love it when people have that memorized because we like, wait, you know, think about that for a second. That verse that, you know, is saying the same exact thing that I'm trying to show you from all these other verses in the Bible. It says the same thing, right? It's teaching that good doctrine. And these are the things in my, in worldly music that I would sing and sing and sing and never really pay attention to lyrics. Once you start paying attention to lyrics, it's like, whoa, wait a minute. What did that say? No, no, no, no. I don't want to listen to that. Right. That's that's a response we should have. And, you know, especially this month. Turn it off and then keep it off for the rest of the year. And then we come back to this challenge. It'll be that much easier to do because you really only have to worry about one aspect of the challenge, not two. So let's let's open up the song 129 and I'm not going to sing these words. Going to read the lyric. Rock of ages. Classic song. Great. Him. But let's compare. And I'm not going to reread it, but I opened up that song right with what we're going to see here. And some of it you see, like, like the first stanza, the first few verses of that song. There was nothing wrong with it opening up with giving praise to God like, like, fine, great. But then as you keep going, it's just kind of like, are you going to say anything? Right. Other than it just keeps following me, following me, following. So verse one there of Rock of Ages, Rock of Ages cleft for me. And I also love the poetry and the lyricism of these songs. Because it is talented. It is it is. Language that is appropriate for biblical topics. And what I mean by that is it's intelligent. It's thoughtful. It's written in a way. It's not just like. Common slang. And some of this is older, too. So it's a little bit older expressions. But like, you know, you think of a cleft in a rock. What is that? It's it's a it's an opening. It's a crack in the rock. Right. And this is Rock of Ages, of course, talking about Jesus Christ cleft for me. So he was broken for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Like I need to hide. You were broken for me. Now let me hide in you. Like that's it's just it's just good poetry. It's good lyrics. Right. Just on that level alone, let alone doctrinally. Right. So doctrinally, of course, this is good. But but, you know, this good, good music to praise the Lord with ought to be good in every aspect. It ought to be good musically, it ought to be good doctrinally and ought to be good lyrically. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side, which flowed, which is, again, a reference to literal doctrine. To John, 1934, where the Bible says, But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water. Right. So so a literal reference to scripture, not just a generality, but like, I mean, it's pointing out the water and the blood that flowed out of his side. This is what we need. It's reinforcing these truths in scripture that and a good thing about teaching in the songs is you might be like, oh, the water and blood. You know, like if you weren't that familiar with the word, then you could go look up, be like, yeah, look, there it is. Or they should they should be able to match. Be of sin, the double cure. Save from wrath. Right. So the blood that Jesus shed, it saves you from God's wrath. And make me pure. It's great that his righteousness is imputed unto not only are your sins forgiven, but God's Jesus's righteousness is imputed unto you. That's a double cure. Amen. Right. Good doctrine. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal? No laying or no. So if we're saying is if my tears could just continue forever and my zeal wouldn't diminish. So when it says no laying or no, it just means like my zeal just just stays at a high level of zeal. These for sin could not atone. So no matter how much sorrow I have and no matter how much zeal I have, no matter how excited I am about the things of God, even if that never died down and I just stayed really zealous about serving God. Hey, that doesn't atone for my sin. These for sin could not atone. Thou must save in thou alone. Jesus alone for salvation in my hand. No price I bring simply to thy cross I cling. What great illustrations of salvation. Right. I mean, it's good doctrine. Verse three. While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown and behold thee on thy throne, rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. It's good. I mean, it's it's it's lyrically good. It fits it. This is good music. Let's turn to. I'm not going to go through all of these because I was I mean, you never I never quite know exactly how it's going to work out doing something for the first time here. Look at verse number two, song two sixty three. Doctrine teaching one another in Psalms hymn spiritual songs. Verily, verily. Oh, what a savior they died for me. From condemnation, he hath made me free. He that believeth on the son sayeth he hath everlasting life. You believe on Jesus. You have. He said you have everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, verily, verily message ever new. He that believeth on the son says true everlasting life. And notice like this is quoting verily, verily. So puts it in quotes. Why? Because it's coming from scripture. Like it's literally quoting the Bible in the song. Not just saying, oh, God, goodness is chasing after you. It's quoting the Bible with the good news of salvation. Verse two. All my iniquities on him were laid. All my indebtedness by him was paid. Oh, who believe on him? The Lord hath said hath everlasting life. Notice the emphasis. It's on. He said this. Jesus said this. The Lord said this. The Bible says this. Whosoever believes has everlasting life. That's what's being expressed in this song. That's good doctrine. Verse three. Though poor and needy, I can trust my Lord. Though weak and sinful, I believe his word. Oh, glad message. Every child of God hath everlasting life. Verse four, though all unworthy, yet I will not doubt. For him that cometh, he will not cast out. Can't lose your salvation. He that believeth. Oh, the good news shout hath everlasting life. Amen. Good song. Doctrinally sound. Great reason to praise the Lord. And again, done appropriately, done respectfully and done in a way that that magnifies the Lord. Right. And we can go. I'll do one more just right across the page there. Once for all. Right. Same topic. Salvation once for all. Again, it comes from Hebrews, comes from the Bible. Notice how these songs are literally coming from scripture. Now, they don't all have to quote scripture. Like the water and the blood coming out of his wounded side. Right. It's poetically stated, but it still is the truth like like coming from a verse in the Bible. It doesn't have to quote it verbatim. Verse one, free from the law. Oh, happy condition. Jesus has bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall. Grace hath redeemed us once for all. Then, of course, of course, once for all. Oh, sinner, receive it. Once for all. Brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, the burden will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once for all. Verse two, now are we free? There's no condemnation. Like John 524. Right. Brother, say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth that him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation. But is passed from death unto life. Now are we free? There's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. It's complete. It's perfect. Come unto me. And that's quoted. Right. Oh, hear his sweet call. Come. And he saves us once for all. Children of God. Oh, glorious calling. Surely his grace will keep us from falling. Passing from death to life at his call. Blessed salvation once for all. These are good songs. We don't need to get rid of this stuff and just be like, oh, no, we just need to keep adding all these new songs. Look, these are good. Now, and these songs, they don't sound the same, do they? Like they're they're in the same genre. Right. So there's a style to the music. There's a style that sets it apart from the world. This style is not found in any contemporary music that's played, is it? Does anything else sound like this? Nothing. And this is why we sing this style of music. I'm not against someone creating and writing new lyrics and making up a new melody and a tune and putting a spiritual song into words and creating that and singing that in church. I am not against that at all. But you know what I am against is patterning it after the world and after the marketing of the world and after the feelings of the world and after everything else. Look, these songs hit different than the world's music does. Does the fact and I've listened to music my whole life and the feeling that I would get, that good feeling I would get from the world's music is different than the good feeling I get from this music. It's not the same. It's not the same source. This is not of the world. It's of the Father. This this this style of music is the right. And I'm not saying it can't be altered some way or another. Right. But we we definitely are not going to be patterning it off of Satan's music. Ever. Why would you want to have spiritual music, godly music be patterned off of Satan's music? And if you like Satan's music, what are you talking about? I have done plenty of sermons on this subject. Go look them up. OK, seriously. And if you need help looking them up, I'll give them to you. I'll send them to you. One more, let's look at 169, Come Thou Fount. This has another scriptural reference that I wanted to just read real quick, too. Just in case you hadn't picked up on this before. But and this is what like I like this. I've always liked this song. But. One of the great things is when you get these doctrinal songs. And yeah, it's like you could never really have enough that are about salvation because it's so great. Right. And praise the Lord for that. But it is also good to have songs about some other topics as well. Right. Like we're saying Christmas songs about and that's specifically just about the birth of Christ. And in that one event in scripture, there's songs dedicated to that specific event. Right. And then there's songs dedicated to other specific events in scripture as well. And that's great. And that's what we ought to have is a good amount of songs to give to cover different doctrines and things that are important that we can teach and admonish one another with. Like the Bible says. Come now found. First one says, come now fount of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount. I'm fixed upon it. Mount of thy redeeming love. And this is very poetic, but the verse I want to really focus in on is verse number two. Here I raise my Ebeneezer. Hither by thy help I'm come. Just that one verse right there is a reference to scripture. And if you want to, you could turn to First Samuel Chapter seven. This is where this comes from. It comes from the story in the scripture. And I don't want to go through and just expound every single, you know, I don't want to expound more hymns than I do the Bible. It's gonna be a little bit of a different sermon, but. This isn't the word of God like the songwriter, right? Robert Robinson or John Wythe. That's that's not that, you know, this isn't a new book of the Bible. So I don't need to expound every every lyric in here. I'm just trying to point out the good thing about it, how it's doctrinally sound and just the type of music that we use and why we use it. And I think it's the right kind of music. For all these reasons. But this one verse right here, that verse two here, here I raise my Ebeneezer. Hither by thy help I'm come. Look at verse number three of First Samuel Chapter seven, the Bible says, And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, if you do if you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only. And he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth and serve the Lord only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpi and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together to Mizpi and drew water and poured it out before the Lord. And fasted on that day and said, There we have sinned against the Lord and Samuel judge the children of Israel in Mizpi. And this is, you know, Samuel's this becomes a judge. It's after Eli and his sons. Eli dies, the sons die, the Philistines take the ark and all of that happens. Remember the beginning of First Samuel, right for same as a child is being raised by Eli. There's this battle. They lose the ark. The ark is being restored is sent back to Israel. And now Samuel is like like reestablishing the children of Israel and telling them, like, get right with God at this point. Right. And as he gathers all the people together, they're at Mizpi, they're repentant. And Samuel's judging the children of Israel in Mizpi, verse seven says, And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpi, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, and when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us. So now they're seeking God to help them and they're seeking God to be their deliverer and they're seeking God to defend them. When this threat comes up of these uncircumcised Philistines that are coming up to battle and fight against them and they're scared. But they go, Samuel, Samuel, you know, get get a hold of God. We need we need the Lord. We need the Lord with us that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them. And they were smitten before Israel and the men of Israel went out of Mizpi and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Bethchor. So God brings this great victory and they're chasing the enemy away. Right. God like that. He saw, hey, they're putting their trust in me. Great. That's what I want them to do. I want them to seek me. I want them to come to me. Samuel offers up the offering and God's like, hey, I'm here for you. I'm going to be your deliverer. I'm going to save you. And that's exactly what happens. Their enemies are running away. And then in this triumph, verse 12, the Bible says, then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpi and Shen and called the name of it Ebenezer. So here's that Ebenezer point. And he says, saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And God helped us all the way back from there all the way to right here. God just chased our enemies away up to this point. God was fighting for us and God helped us. That's the Ebenezer. That's the point. And up to where God is just is brought them all the way up to there. And it's a good marker to show how far God how far God has taken them and what God has done for them. And in that song, it says here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither to his help has come. I forget the words exactly, but it's referencing an Ebenezer in a life that, hey, God has brought me to this point. It's good doctrine. Referencing the scripture. It's it has more meaning to it because it's bringing up stuff from the Bible. Right. And these are the types of songs that we want to be singing. And I'm going to I'm going to close. Well, actually, I'm not going to close with this. Oh, man. OK. I won't go in depth on this one at all. I'm going to skip over this. There's a few songs we don't sing, though, that have the right style. They're not patterned after the world. But because we care about the doctrine. There are songs even in the songbook that we use that we will never sing in this church. And I've made a decision on that. And sometimes they could get a little bit gray on like, are we going to sing this or not? Because some songs are a little wishy washy. They might be kind of straddling the fence a little bit. The way that it sounds, you might be able to take it one way or another. So at the end of the day, I have to make a decision on are we going to sing this or not? The good thing is that we've got tons of songs to be able to sing and we haven't sung all of them yet in our five years existence. And we haven't tried to sing them all yet, but we're working on that. So it's easy to just be like, when in doubt, throw it out. Right. And just be like, yeah, we don't need to sing that song. Two specific examples. One is song number 243. And this is a song that I've always enjoyed that I've sung at other churches until I realized the doctrinal error on this. So like the tune is catchy. It sounds nice. And the rest of the lyrics in the song are OK. But it's the first verse that's just kills it and kills it in a really major way. And that's Victory in Jesus, song number 243. So we look at the first verse there. It says, I heard an old, old story how a savior came from glory. How he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me. I heard about his groaning of his precious blood's atoning. Now, look. He's saying he heard, he heard, he heard. And this is all good stuff. This is all right stuff. I heard I heard that the savior came and I heard that he died on Calvary for me to save a wretch like me. I am a poor sinner. And his groaning and his precious blood's atoning. But look at this. The first three verses, the first three sentences. I heard about Jesus. I heard about Jesus. I heard about what he did for me. Then I repented of my sin. And won the victory. So I heard about Jesus doing all this stuff for me. But then, but then you know what? I, I turn from my sin. No, the only thing that fits there is then I received Christ or I put my faith in Jesus Christ. Like that's what belongs there. Because you turning from your sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. You turning from transgressing the law to keeping the law. I mean that's, that's literally what you're doing when you turn from sin, you're turning to keep the law. That's, that, there is no other type of repentance from that. You can't turn to anything else because you're turning away from breaking the law. Well how do you turn away from breaking the law? By keeping the law. I'm turning away from sin. Oh look, I'm keeping the law. I won the victory. I'm keeping the law. No. No. Absolutely not. Bad heretical doctrine. Not singing it. It's out. You know, some people change the words and I don't care if people do that. Like that's fine. You like the song, you want to sing it. I don't because that's the way the song is written in the book. And I don't want to have any, I just don't want to have anything to do with it. So we just don't sing it here. And if you change the words and stuff, you sing it. I don't care. But we're not going to sing that song here. Even with different words, I'm not going to change it. It's just out. One other example, and there's others too, I just want to point this out because what are we focusing on? The Psalms, the hymns, the spiritual songs. Teaching and admonishing one another with these songs. So we do have to pay attention to the doctrine. We want the music to be the right music. We want it to actually teach and admonish and not just be fluff in our ears and tickle our ears. And it's funny because the same people that want to have the shallow music also like the shallow preaching. The same people, oh, tickle my ears with the song, tickle my ears with the sermon. Pat me on the back, tell me I'm good and I'm going to keep living my life however I want to live my life. I'm going to keep on doing what I do. Don't tell me I'm in sin. Don't tell me I'm doing anything wrong. Just tell me what I want to hear. Tell me God is good. He's chasing after me. I know that's not exactly what the song says, but God doesn't chase after anyone. He doesn't have to chase after you. You should be chasing after him. Song 240 is another song you've never heard sung in this church, The Lily of the Valley. And this is just backwards is what it boils down to. This is someone who didn't understand the passage that wrote this song. And if you don't understand it, don't make a song about it. If you want to see a scriptural reference, we look at Song of Solomon, chapter two. But I'll just read I'll start reading the first verse here. The Lily Valley, the song here in our songbook says, I have found a friend in Jesus. He's everything to me. He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. That says the lily of the valley in him alone. I see all I need to cleanse and make me fully whole. In sorrow, he's my comfort in trouble. He's my stay. He tells me every care on him to roll. He's a lily of the valley, the bright morning star. He's a fairest of ten thousand to my soul. So just the fact that it's referencing Jesus as being a lily. Right off the bat, it's a little weird. But if the Bible said that, OK, then the Bible says it and then I'm weird because I don't understand the Bible. But men aren't typically associated with flowers, delicate little flowers, right? It's a little more of a feminine attribute than it is a masculine one. Song of Solomon, chapter two. And Song of Solomon can be difficult to understand. There's a lot of back and forth in this and it changes because there's two narrators in that. There's there's a woman's perspective and a man's perspective. And it goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And sometimes the pronouns are, you know, like they're not very specific and it kind of just is speaking and says I, I, I, I, I. And it put switches, you know, like. So you really got to be paying close attention to make sure that that you're understanding it right. So I get that. But like I said, you can go out and write a song about it. Make sure you read it a few more times and you got it down right. Verse one says, I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. We don't know who this is at all just from this one verse where we're jumping in right now. Right. Don't know. Rose of Sharon and lily of the valleys. But then verse two clarifies a little bit more because it says as the lily. We were just reading about the lily in the previous verse as the lily among thorns. So is my love. Among the daughters. And then look at the next verse as the apple tree among the trees of the wood. So is my beloved. Among the sons. So you've got a lily and an apple tree. The lilies among the daughters and the apple tree is among the sons. Which one do you think is representing the man and which one do you think is representing the woman? Now, neither of these is saying it's Jesus. Right. But obviously you can get some some. Types of Christ in plenty of these. And it does exist in the Song of Solomon. I'm not saying it doesn't. But. Yeah. We're not going to reference Jesus as being the beloved woman. Who's being associated with the lily and and among the daughters. Right. That's pretty I think it's pretty pretty clear to see that from scripture. This is why we don't sing this song. Right. So you might have heard it before. You might like the way the song goes, but we won't sing it because of the doctrine. And there's a few other songs, too, that that we choose not to sing all based on the doctrine, because just as much as we care about the word of God and the doctrine that is taught through the preaching. And I do my best to try to make sure that what I'm saying is right, as much as I humanly can. And we'll put in effort and research and really try to make sure that I'm doing the job that I need to do. OK, there's there's effort into that, just as also we care about how we go soul winning. The method that we use, the calling on the name of the Lord, every aspect of that. We're trying to do that right and in accordance with scripture. But we also want to sing and have our music, our songs also in accordance with scripture. Why? Because everything we do with our spiritual life, we ought to care about doing it right, doing it in a way that's going to please the Lord. When you start designing things to please man instead of pleasing the Lord, you run into a lot of problems. The songs that are real shallow, that are real catchy, that sound like pop music. That is what man likes. That is what flesh likes. But that's not the music that God wants. That is not what's glorifying to the Lord. What glorifies Lord is the specifics like when you have just a whole bunch of music and it is not being very clear and not being very specific, especially about salvation and especially if it's a song like about salvation to some degree or another. You know, the Bible's clear for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Right. Like like you better name Jesus or the son or, you know, like like like have that clear or in some aspect of the gospel. Just just sound. And there is no disputing what this is talking about. Right. Make it clear. Make it easy understood. Not ambiguous. These songs that we looked at tonight are not ambiguous from our songbook. They say specific and even the doctrinally wrong ones, the ones in error, they're not ambiguous either. They say what they say. They are clear. They're clearly wrong, but they're clear. We want to be clear in the teaching, in the preaching and in the music. So I don't know. I hope this was a blessing to you. I hope you understand a little bit more about our musical stance here at Strong Old Baptist Church and why we stick to the old hymns. Just kind of similar reason why we stick to the old Bible. Right. We want we want to do everything right and decent and in order. Let's bow our heads of word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the instruction. We thank you for music. Dear Lord, just in general, I thank you for designing us in a way to to appreciate the sounds that come from instruments and from voices. And Lord, we really do want to please you in our praises to you, dear Lord. And we will continue to do things as best as we can. And where we are in error, Lord, please illuminate us. Please help us to get right, because we just want to do the things that would make you happy. And God, we thank you. We love you. Please keep us all safe as we go our separate ways this evening. It's in Jesus Christ's name. We pray. Amen. All right. And we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. And just as a bonus, if you want the information, if you're not familiar with because I had this in my notes, but it just took too much time. There's a story. There's a back story behind the song, the hymn. It is well with my soul. And if you don't know that back story, I've got it printed out here. It's a cool thing to check out. You could check it out after the service. It's very interesting. But with that, I'm going to turn the service over to Brother Peter. My church is singing something on the first. Son of God, bless your life. Raise me from my holy place. With the God we bring you praise. Jesus Lord, I burn. Jesus Lord, I burn. Silent night, holy night. What a star made my life. With the angels let us sing. Alleluia to our King. Christ the Savior is born. Christ the Savior is born. Amen. Church, great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Amen. Amen.