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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 4.15 Victory Through Grace This is one of Rumi's favorites He picked all the high ones to torture me Alright 4.15 Victory Through Grace 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Conquering now and still to conquer What if the king in his mind Leading the host of the faithful Into the midst of the fine See them with courage and dancing Clad in their brilliant glory Shouting the name of their leader Hear them exultingly See them exultingly See them exultingly See them exultingly Not to the strong Not to the strong Not to the swift Not to the swift Yet to the true Yet to the true And the faithful Victory is promised Victory is promised Through grace Conquering now and still To conquer Who is this wonderful king Whence are the armies which he leadeth While of his glory they sing He is our Lord and Redeemer Savior and monarch divine They are the stars that forever Bright in his kingdom will shine Not to the strong In the battle Swift is the race Yet to the true And the faithful Victory is promised Through grace Conquering now and still To conquer Jesus the ruler of all Thrones in their scepters All shall perish Crowds in their splendor Shall fall Yet shall the armies thou lead us Faithful and true to the last Find in thy mansions eternal Rest when their warfare is past Not to the strong Is the battle Not to the swift Is the race Yet to the true And the faithful Victory is promised Through grace And next page 416 as a volunteer Be our next hymn 416 A call for loyal soldiers comes to one and all Soldiers for the conflict Will you heed the call Will you answer quickly with already cheer Will you be enlisted as a volunteer A volunteer for Jesus A soldier true Others have enlisted Why not you Jesus says the captain We will never fear Will you be enlisted as a volunteer Yes Jesus calls for soldiers who are filled with harm Soldiers who will serve him Every day and arm He will not forsake you He is ever near Will you be enlisted as a volunteer A volunteer for Jesus A soldier true Others have enlisted Why not you Jesus is the captain We will never fear Will you be enlisted as a volunteer He calls for you He loves you He loves you with a heart most kind He whose heart was broken Broken for mankind Now just now he calls you Calls in accents clear Will you be enlisted as a volunteer A volunteer for Jesus A soldier true Others have enlisted Why not you Jesus is the captain We will never fear Will you be enlisted as a volunteer And when the war is over And the victory won When the true and faithful Gather one by one He will crown with glory All who there appear Will you be enlisted as a volunteer A volunteer for Jesus A soldier true Others have enlisted Why not you Jesus is the captain We will never fear Will you be enlisted as a volunteer Amen, good singing, at this time we'll have the announcements Good evening, welcome to Shore Foundation Baptist Church Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements If you don't have one, I think we're out Are we out? There's none left? Alright, well I guess you'll have to use the one that you had from Sunday On the front page we have our verse of the week It says the Lord is slow to anger and great in power And will not all acquit the wicked The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind And in the storm and the cloud are the dust of his feet Nahum 1.3 On our inside page of course we have our service times that never change Sunday morning 10.30 a.m. Sunday evening 3.30 p.m. Thursday Bible study 6.30 p.m. We'll be in First Chronicles chapter 25 tonight And our sowing times were listed below We had sowing tonight We had nine out and none saved But thank you for the men who were out there And women that were faithful tonight And we have our praise report Look down, you can see the salvation, attendance, all that good stuff Below And then this weekend is We're going to have a men's preaching night And a sowing marathon But we're not going to do that This weekend instead We are going to have Renny He's going to preach for us on Sunday night And he's going to preach his farewell address Because they are moving up to Spokane To lead up there So it'll be their last service on Sunday night And we're going to have a meal and fellowship After the Sunday night service After he preaches And so I'll probably preach an appropriate sermon on Sunday morning Concerning sending him up there And then Yeah so Another family leaving the church Unfortunately But fortunately for Spokane So it's just Yeah It's sad to see Of course it's sad to see my son and my grandchildren go Of course But And you guys have been Remy's been with us from the beginning of course And so it's kind of tough But at the same time it's good For the kingdom of God Because they need leadership up there So I know they're excited about getting up there And he's got his job Prepared up there I know he got offered another better job So he's like He keeps just getting offered better jobs Every day So That must Be nice To keep getting offered better jobs So But you know When you walk by faith Then God will give And provide the things that you need Amen So Then we have the Lord's Supper On the 13th We have the mega marathon on the 19th Of April Easter Sunday is the 20th And then The 25th Through the 27th Is the Seattle Two year anniversary And Pastor Anderson will be preaching On Friday night At 7pm Up there at the building there That we rent And it will be in the same place We always have it So And then the 15th We have the KGB conference And We'll have Again Pastor Anderson Pastor Shelley Pastor Mahia Preaching here for us And We're definitely Going to be gearing up for that For the next month or so And then A month and a half Getting ready for all that And Kayla's bridal shower Is the 31st And then the Chicago soul winning marathon The 28th And Detroit September 6th So All the other good stuff we know Let's see I don't think there's any birthdays We've already done all the birthdays And we do have some sick folks out there So Definitely we've got some sick families out there With various plagues So It's good to have the plagues before the Lord's Supper And not after the word So people aren't saying Yeah I knew that there was something wrong No I'm just kidding Alright well Let's go ahead and pray for the families that are sick right now Lord we thank you so much for The privilege and honor to come to you in Jesus' name Lord we pray just for The families that are out sick Tonight And In Jesus' name Alright next hymn is 335 335, from the red to the green If Jesus goes with me If I don't sing loud toward the end It's not that I'm not enthusiastic It's like the absolute limit of my range Alright Alright It may be in the valley Where countless dangers hide It may be in the sunshine That I in peace abide But this one thing I know If it be dark or fair If Jesus is with me I'll go anywhere If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If he is there I count it a privilege here His rose to bear If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere It may be I must carry The blessed word of life Across the burning deserts To those in sinful strife And though it be To bear my colors there If Jesus goes with me I'll go anywhere If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If he is there I count it a privilege here His rose to bear If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere But if it be my portion to bear My cross at home While others bear their burdens Beyond the billows foam I'll prove my faith in him Confess his judgment fair And if he stays with me I'll go anywhere If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If he is there I count it a privilege here His rose to bear If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere It is not mine to question The judgment of my Lord It is but mine to follow The leadings of his word But if to go or stay Or while they're here or there I'll be with my seed Content anywhere If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If he is there I count it a privilege here His rose to bear If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Anywhere Tis heaven to me wherever I be If Jesus goes with me I'll go Moreover, David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph and of Haman and of Jedithun, who should prophesy with harps, with saltries, and with cymbals. And the number of the workmen according to the service was of the sons of Asaph, Zakir, and Joseph, and Ethaniah, and Asirela, the sons of Asaph, under the hands of Asaph, which prophesied according to the order of the king. Of Jedithun, the sons of Jedithun, Gedaliah, and Zari, and Jeshiah, and Hashabiah, and Mathathiah, six under the hands of their father Jedithun, who prophesied with a harp to give thanks and to praise the Lord. Of Haman, the sons of Haman, Bukhiah, Mataniah, Uzziel, Shebewell, and Jerimoth, Ananiah, Anani, Eli, Eliathah, Gedalti, and Romantiezer, Joshbekah, Shah, Malothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth. And these were the sons of Haman, the king's seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn, and God gave to Haman fourteen sons and three daughters. All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, saltries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king's order to Asaph, Jedithun, and Haman. So the number of them with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning, was two hundred bore score and eight, and they cast lots, ward against ward, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar. Now the first lot came forth for Asaph to Joseph, the second to Gedaliah, who with his brethren were twelve. The third to Zakir, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The fourth to Israel, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The fifth to Netheniah, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The sixth to Bukhiah, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The seventh to Jeshirelah, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The eighth to Jeshiah, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The ninth to Netheniah, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The tenth, the Shemai, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The eleventh, the Azaril, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The twelfth, the Hashabiah, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The thirteenth, the Shubayel, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The fourteenth, the Matathiah, he, his sons, and his brethren were twelve. The and his brethren were twelve. The two in 20th did Gedalti, he his sons and his brethren were twelve. The three in 20th, the Mahazioth, he his sons and his brethren were twelve. The four in 20th, the Romam T. Erzur, he his sons and his brethren were twelve. Brothers CJ, please read for us. All right, we've been going through 1 Chronicles, now we're getting close to winding it down to the end, and the last couple weeks, David's been dividing and organizing the Levites, and he divided the Levites into their new workstations, basically because of the coming temple that Solomon and his son's gonna build, and so he's basically changed some of their duties, he's changed their ages, to which they'll serve from 30 to 20, and he's also changed some of their duties, and so now there's gonna be more Levites serving because they're starting younger, they still have the same retirement age, I think it's 50, but they really don't retire in the way that necessarily we would, they could still, they only have like what, a couple times a year that they have to serve for a full week in the temple I think is how it works out, but they also are teaching priests also, and so some of these guys live in different places in Israel, so if you think about it, they're having to travel from whatever tribe, whatever suburb city that they were given in the lots and were studying in Joshua, we're gonna get to the lots where they're all given, because they didn't get an inheritance, the Levites, so they live in suburb cities all throughout Israel, some of them don't live necessarily right in Jerusalem, they live in other places, so it kinda makes sense that you'd have to divide them up like that, of course the high priest would have to live there year round, but the other ones are living in other places, so anyway, then you had, last week we talked about the actual priests that serve and of the most holy things, and only they can do those certain things, and they were also given divisions based upon Zadok and Abiathar, so they had two high priests at the same time, and that was because the priests that got killed at Nod, or Nod, whatever, anyway, whatever that place is called, where Doeg the Edomite killed all those priests, well one escaped, and he escaped to David, and then David made him his high priest basically, and then he had Zadok, who's actually gonna be the main high priest because Abiathar, he ended up betraying Solomon, and trying to go with Abijah, the other son, so anyway, there's only gonna be one high priest later on, so that's kinda how the divisions have played out. Now there's gonna be Levites that are just musicians only, and in this chapter you'll see that there, well maybe it's not in this chapter, but in 1 Chronicles 9 I think, and I don't have that in my notes, but there were some that that's all they did, they just didn't, day and night, that's all they did, is practice music and played music, so we don't necessarily have that in the New Testament in our churches, but they do have worship leaders I guess at some churches, and usually they're pretty queer, not all churches obviously, but it seems like a lot of these guys are some limp wrists at homos, but obviously there's some that aren't, so I guess I probably shouldn't have said that, but it seems like some of these guys are a little light in the loafers, but God obviously, he has men that are real men that are into music, and David was a man's man, I mean he camped outside a lot, running from Saul for years, and he'd slain giants and crushing people, but then he'd just go play his harp or whatever, so it's like, he was a man after God's own heart in a lot of different ways, so anyway, let's get into the sermon here, I have four points tonight, and tonight's sermon is King David Organizes the Musicians, so the first point is that there is preaching in God's music, there is preaching in God's music, so again, though in this time, the Levites are the ones that are, he's specifically, these musicians are only from the tribe of Levi, they're not from anywhere else, so now in the New Testament, we don't have that stipulation, it doesn't have to be from a certain tribe, or it doesn't have to be the pastor's kids, it doesn't have to be ordained people that are in music, anybody can be a musician, so that thing has changed, but what I do believe, just starting off from the very get-go, is I believe that the mandates that are made in this chapter, where David is specifying that there must be musicians, I believe that that carries on into the New Testament, because, you know, and people get weird, you know, I'm not saying that it has to be divided up like this, but I think that it should be organized, it should be skillful people doing it, just like it says in this chapter, and I think that God wants music in his church, and, you know, the, where people just go off the rails with this stuff, where they're just like, yeah, you know, there shouldn't be musical instruments, because the New Testament doesn't mention any musical instruments, yeah, but it does in the Psalms, I mean, all over the Psalms, and we're commanded to listen and play Psalms in church, so, look at verse number one, the Bible says, Moreover, David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of He-Man, and of Jettathun, who should prophesy with harps, with salt trees, and with cymbals, and the number of the workmen according to their service. So, right off the bat, David, he's taking the captain of the host, so the military guys that he has, he's separating all these people, and he has three separate divisions, one is Asaph, He-Man, and Jettathun. And so, aside from the organization, these Levites, the Levites are to be musicians, specific ones are also to prophesy, and see what it says there, it says, who should prophesy with harps. So what does prophesy mean? Well, it means to preach, doesn't it? So it can be something that's predicting the future or telling about future events, but prophesying is also just preaching. So they're doing it with harps, salt trees, and cymbals, these specific three guys. Now you can prophesy with different kinds of instruments, because in the Bible you can see that they're using minstrels, which is kind of like a guitar, an old school guitar in the Old Testament, we'll go to those verses here in a little bit, but these specific three guys were preachers. They didn't just play music, they preached when they sang, and they led the music, and they wrote music, because there's psalms of Asaph, he wrote psalms, and those psalms are prophetic and there's preaching within those psalms. See music preaches to us, when we sing songs, like the songs that we sang in our service before we started the preaching service, those songs preach to you, they teach you doctrine, and that's why it's important that we sing songs that have true doctrine in them, because if they have a bunch of false doctrine in them, then we just kind of do an X in them and don't sing them. Like Remy one time accidentally sang the wrong version of, what was the song, he says, trust with, it said repent of all your sins instead of, I forgot what song it was, the old account was settled long ago. So there's a different version of that song, and he sang the wrong song, and he's like repent of all your what, and he's just like, if you guys remember that. So we want to scratch those ones out of our hymnal when we get the chance. Now some of them are like, yeah, I don't know, what is that actually saying? So we got to be careful about what we're singing, because the things that we sing can get into our hearts, and then we start believing those things, and we don't want to sing songs that will teach us false doctrine, because it is preaching to us. So these guys are told to prophesy with these specific things, because these are the instruments that they are experts in. And so obviously these three instruments are the instruments that they mainly were experts in. So anyway, we ought to think about these things when we have our services, that when we are singing songs, we're singing songs to each other while we're in the services. And so, like the words of these songs, when we sing them, we shouldn't be half-heartedly singing them, not really into it. You know, when we come to the Lord, we're supposed to come to him with singing, and we preach to each other the words in those songs, and psalms. I'm getting ahead of myself, but let's go to 1 Samuel 10, verse 5, and we'll look at some examples, just a few examples in the Bible where psalms, or preaching, excuse me, is given through musical instruments. It's like, that's the starter piece to get the preaching going, which is real interesting, because I've never done that before. I haven't come up, because I don't have a musical bone in my body, but I don't just come up and go, brring, brring, and then just start ripping face, you know? But some preachers were like that in the Old Testament. So look at 1 Samuel 10, verse 5, it says, after that, this is Samuel talking to Saul, King Saul, before he becomes king, it says, after that, thou shall come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines, and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets, coming down from the high place with a salt tree, a tabret, a pipe, and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy so they're, what, they're playing music. They're playing with a salt tree, a tabret, a pipe, and a harp, and it says, they shall prophesy, they're gonna start preaching, and the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shall be turned into another man. So once he meets them, and starts preaching with them, then he's gonna be turned into another man. What's that mean? Well, he's gonna get saved. He's gonna get saved through that preaching, and so there's a perfect example of music starting the preaching, and then, you know, he's getting saved. So now turn to Psalm chapter 22, Psalm chapter 22. I've always thought this was super interesting, how this would play out, because I've never seen somebody use a musical instrument to start preaching with, but it's in the Bible. I'm not saying to start doing it, because it might weird people out, but Baptists aren't used to that kind, that level of preaching. So anyway, Psalm 22, verse 3, it says, But thou art holy, O thou, that inhabitest the praises of Israel. But thou art holy, O thou, that inhabitest the praises of Israel. So you know, somehow God is involved in our song service, is basically what I'm getting out of that. When the praises of God, the songs of the Lord are going out, he's inhabiting those praises. It's pretty interesting, right? And that's obviously a prophetic psalm. The psalms are prophetic of the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of them are talking about his future, how he's gonna be the future Messiah, and all that. So prophesying about his death, even prophesying about Judas. I mean, there's several psalms that indicate that they're about Judas Iscariot, at least a couple. So the melt like a snail one is definitely about Judas. I think Psalm 109 for sure is about Judas, Psalm 58, anyway, look at Psalm 49 while you're in Psalms there. And King David, he was called a prophet, but how was he a prophet? I mean, a lot of the prophecies he made were what in the psalms? In the songs that he wrote that they played in the song services in the congregation of the Lord. And David wasn't alive when the temple was built, he died well before that, and Solomon was playing his music in the services. Obviously there was other songs that were played besides just David's, but all throughout the times the temples were around, and even before that, when David was alive, he wrote a lot of those songs. But there was also songs that Moses wrote that were sung in the congregation, and other men also. But Psalm 49 four says, I will incline mine ear to a parable. I will open my dark scene upon the harp. So he's talking about writing his music and preaching parables and dark scenes upon the harp that he plays. Pretty interesting. So the psalms themselves, again, are prophetic in nature, and being sung in the congregation is them being preached to them in the past as well as us in the future when we sing them. So one thing that we've kind of gotten away from in our church is seeing the psalms, and I want to get back to that. I always feel like I have to get back and say, hey, let's get back to that, and I don't know why we ever get away from it, but we need to get back to it. Let's sing the psalms. We know them, and for some reason we just don't do them. But I would like to, now that we're going to have some new song leaders, let's focus on getting those psalms. There's new psalms being put to music all the time, and there's ones that I know that Pastor Shelley has put to music that we haven't even sung yet. So when other people are putting psalms to music, I think we should have a good variety of psalms that we sing in the church. We have the books, we have the music to them. I mean, people are like, hey, can we get the music to it? Yeah. Well, can we get the words to them? Yeah. And then they just sit there. We're not using them. So look at 2 Kings 3, verse 15, 2 Kings 3, verse 15. Because singing the psalms is not a suggestion in the Bible, is it? Is it a suggestion, or is it something that we're commanded to do? So why are we not doing it? 2 Kings 3, verse 15 says, but now bring me a minstrel. This is Elisha, the prophet. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came, so it's like a guitar, right? And it came to pass when the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. So he didn't start preaching until the guitar starts playing, right? And then the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he said, Thus saith the Lord, make the valley full of ditches. For thus saith the Lord, You shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink both ye and your cattle and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will deliver the Moabites also into your hand, and ye shall smite every fence city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. So he's prophesying a great victory, and how does he start off with it? With a guitar. And he doesn't start preaching until the guitar starts playing. His hand is not upon him until the guitar starts playing. Really interesting, I mean, if you've never really thought about that. Now let's turn to Colossians, chapter 3, verse 15. There's some New Testament passages that teach us that we are still supposed to sing the songs of the Old Testament. You would call it the Old Testament, but if it's saying sing those things, they're for both Testaments, aren't they? So the Proverbs are also wisdom for both Testaments. So that's why you'll see, you'll get books that are like Psalms, Proverbs, and the New Testament all packaged in one thing, because those are things that are commonly read every day for a lot of believers everywhere. Colossians 3, 15 says, And let the peace of God rule 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. See how it says teaching? Well, how is it teaching you something? Well, it's teaching you the Bible. It's preaching to you the Bible, and admonishing one another. Well, how are we admonishing one another by singing songs? Well, we're singing it to each other, and we're singing what? The Psalms. Are the Psalms inspired by the word of God? Are they inspired by the Holy Ghost? They are the word of God. And hymns, you know, if they're a good hymn, they're biblically correct. But just the hymns alone are not enough. That's why he says to put the Psalms in with them, because you're not going to get anything negative in the hymnbook. You're not going to get negative stuff in the hymnbook, and God's word is sometimes negative. All the hate psalms are in Psalms 1 through 150. Do not I hate them that hate thee? I mean, the dreaded 139 that people, that Chad Argon couldn't handle being sung at the church in Spokane is just too hateful. It's in the Bible, folks. How could you hate Psalm 139? How could you be such a wuss that you hate Psalm 139? Oh, it's because it's the hateful part. Well, yeah. I mean, because, look, you're not, that's why he said, he doesn't say just sing hymns. Just sing spiritual songs. Just sing songs that make you always feel good. It's because it's teaching and admonishing one another. Because you're not going to get the full spectrum of what the Bible teaches in songs. If we're supposed to teach each other and admonish each other with the songs of the Lord, the hymns are really positive only, aren't they? It's Jesus is coming back, nothing but the blood. Those are great. I love them. They're the hymns of the faith. But you're not going to get, you know, the dogs have encompassed me round about. I mean, nobody's going to get the negative parts of the Bible, and you have to get it all. Why are the Psalms in there if they're not to be sung? They are to be sung. And so, as they're getting done, as people are putting them to music, people that are musically inclined are putting them to, for us to put them and to sing them in church, then we should be singing them. It says, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. I mean, Pastor Shelley just wrote Psalm 58 to music, and that is the one that I just preached about a couple weeks ago. The righteous shall rejoice when they see the vengeance. They shall wash their feet in the blood of the wicked. I mean, that song, Put to Music, just happened to be the first weekend that I was listening before I was getting ready for church, and I just happened to hear the first time they ever sang that song in church. I'm like, amen, that's a perfect day for that psalm to come out and to be sung in a church. How many people across the whole world do you think were singing that psalm in church that day? Probably one. I mean, maybe there's, I mean, it's a big world. Maybe somewhere in Baptist India or something, up in the corner of Baptist India they were singing it. I don't know. Anything's possible, right? But it is a big world. Now let's look at Ephesians 5, 18. So it says, in Colossians 3, 16, it says, let the word of Christ dwell on you richly with all wisdom, teaching and monitoring one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So the word of Christ is the Bible, and so when you're singing the hymns, the Bible is in those hymns. A lot of times, some of those are just straight Bible verses or Bible doctrine that's getting right into your heart and teaching you things that you need to know. Ephesians 5, 18, what does it say? And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. How do we get filled with, what's the opposite of being drunk with wine? Well, it's being filled with the Spirit. Because they call it spirits and wine, like, you know, the places where you can buy alcohol, wine, spirits, beer, whatever. Why is it called that? Well, because it fills you with a different kind of a spirit. It's the kind of spirit that makes you want to beat your wife and look at strange women. And it's the kind of spirit that makes you get in fights and not remember that you got beat up the night before. It's that kind of a spirit. It's the kind of spirit that makes you angry, it makes you think that your judgment is good to drive a car and plow into a family and kill them all. That's the kind of spirit it is. It's a wicked spirit. But the opposite of that is to be filled with the Spirit of God. And if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit, but you're not always filled with the Holy Spirit. So how does God recommend that you do that? Well, it says, speaking to yourselves. What is speaking to yourselves? Well, in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. So when we come to church, what is the first thing that we do? We have the song leader gets up, and they say, turn to song, whatever, whatever, in the Bible. I mean, in song books, excuse me. And we start singing. That's the first thing we do is we sing a song, we pray, and then we sing another song. We do announcements, we sing another song. We do a special, and then we have the Bible reading, we have the preaching, and then we close in another song, and then we close in prayer. So we're constantly singing at church, and the reason why is because God wants us to, and because we're supposed to be praising God. But it says, speaking to yourselves, this isn't just for God's benefit only, it's also for our benefit, to be filled with the Spirit, to prepare us to listen to the sermon and listen to the message, and to praise God and to thank him for the wonderful things that he's done for us. So how do we do that? Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. What is that? Well, what is melody? It's a tune of sweet music. So it's not mega death put to the Psalms. It's not ice tea or ice cube put to the Psalms. I know that people are doing a lot of stuff with music right now, and you've got AI, and you can make all kinds of music, and I can't say that I haven't done some myself, I think it's fun, but that's not what I listen to to get spiritual. The music of the Lord is a melody in your heart, and a melody is a tune of sweet music. When you play, like when they say, when they play that intro on the piano, that's to help you get to the, and then the song leader starts that song, they play the dun dun dun dun you know, whatever, that's the tune of the melody of the song. And that's what melody is, and so when we sing in our hearts with melody to the Lord, it's a tune of sweet music that we're singing to God, okay? That's what he's asking for us to do here in the Bible. So this combination fills us with the Spirit of God. We're preaching God's word and doctrine to ourselves, and to each other, and whatever visitor is among us that's not normally here. So when they hear us not singing out when we have a visitor, and not acting like we would rather be anywhere, if they see us acting like we'd be anywhere, would rather be anywhere else but here, what does that say to the person that visits our church? This is not, this is a dead church. This is a church I'd rather be anywhere but this church. I'd rather be at a rock concert than this church. Because they don't see that we are excited about the fact that we're here. They don't see that we are actually singing out to the Lord, that we're just kinda going through the motions, and I don't wanna be a church like that, I want, you know, acoustically, this is not as good as the building we were at before. We were in kind of like a tunnel that bounced off, you know, it was like, you know, just acoustically, that other building, when we sang, it was awesome. I was actually thinking when Brother Bill was teaching his part of the class on Sunday, it'd be nice to get some way to where we could make the sound better in here because it's hard to get some really good acoustics in here the way that this is laid out. And I don't know what we'd have to do, maybe get some soundboard or something, but something. Yeah, move it from this direction to that direction, yeah. Move the piano, yeah, maybe, I don't know. I'm definitely not a music expert, but I'm willing to listen to what people have to say about it and tell them no, no, I'm just kidding, but I'm just joking. But I mean, I think that it's important for when people come and hear us preaching to each other through songs, hymns and spiritual songs, songs, hymns, spiritual songs, that they're into it and they're like, man, these people really do love the Lord. And when we sing, we should sing like we love the Lord. We should sing like we're getting ready to hear from the Lord in a sermon. We should walk into his presence and want to be here and love the Lord. Turn to, actually, look at verse 20, it says, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So one of the purposes of us coming and singing is that we're also thanking him. That's what Collagen said, also be thankful. And we're supposed to be thankful for what, for what? Our salvation. How about eternal life? How about the blessings that we have in our lives? A lot of times we start thinking we're not blessed, but we're, for the problems that we have in our life, we're really blessed. We're still blessed beyond all measure, and sometimes we start thinking that our problems are bigger than our blessings, and I don't think that that's necessarily the case. Let's go back to our text in 1 Chronicles chapter 25, look at verse 2. Don't be alarmed, I'm not going to read through all the names again, Brother Jesse did a good enough job on all that. So verse 2 says, and the sons of Asaph, Zechar, and Joseph, and Netheniah, and Asirella, and the sons of Asaph, under the hands of Asaph, which prophesied according to the order of the king. So again, they're prophesying, they're preaching in these music services, and it says, of Jethodim, the sons of Jethodim, Gedaliah, and Zirai, and Jeshaiah, and Hashabiah, and Mattathiah, six, under the hands of their father, Jedithin, who prophesied with the harp, to give thanks and to praise the Lord. Of Heman, the sons of Heman, Bukhiah, Madaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, and Jerimoth, and Hananiah, and Hanani, and Eliath, and Gedaladtai, and, sorry, I said I wasn't going to say the names but I didn't realize there were all these. And all these Ayahs and Oths here, all these were the sons of Heman, the king's seer and master of the universe. No, it's just Heman, the king's seer, in the words of God, to lift up the horn. So he played some kind of horn instrument, but he was also the king's, so the Bible says he's the king's seer, in the words of God, to lift up the horn, and God gave to Heman 14 sons and three daughters. So this guy is obviously blessed with many children, and so God's blessing is clearly on his life. He's preaching and he's the seer. So what does that mean? He's a prophet. He's not just playing music, he is a prophet. He's the king's seer, in the words of God. And so that's a great honor, and so Heman is not just a musician, but he's a prophet too. Isn't that what a seer is? A seer is the old word for prophet in the Bible. So the first thing is that God's music, it preaches. It prophesies. That's why sometimes there's songs that just like, you feel that song, and maybe you don't feel it every time you sing it, but you just feel that, this song is speaking to me. This song is speaking to my heart. It's because God's music is gonna speak to your heart, and it's because it's supposed to. It's supposed to preach to you, and we're supposed to preach to each other when we sing in those songs. So now number two, the skilled musicians should lead and teach others also. Look at verse seven, it says, so the number of them with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning was 200, four score, and eight. So there was obviously a lot more people that were really skilled. They had a big congregation that had a lot more people, but the thing I want to point out is that those that were instructed in the songs of the Lord, all that were cunning were 200. So there was a lot of people that were already instructed in these songs, but somebody instructed them. They didn't just wake up, and they were just these prodigies of music. Some people were born with a really strong gift for music, but everybody, even people that have gifts of music still have to play. You can be talented at anything in the world, but if you never practice, you're never going to be good. Now obviously people that are talented have a leg up on a lot of people, and it's really hard to see when someone else is just gifted in an area that you try really hard, and you're just never going to be as good as that person. As long as they try, they're always going to be better than you at that, but these guys were the ones that are supposed to be training the other people. So it's important that we have skilled musicians in our church also, and those people train others to be skilled also. So that's why we have the song leading class, so we can have people that have experience in song leading to teach other men that don't know how to do it, so that you can get skilled at it too. Because if you work at something, no matter how unskilled you think you are, you can get skilled at it if you try. You have to put the effort in though. If you take the class and you never do anything with it, well then you're just never going to get good at it, but you have to put the effort in, and so we don't just put the class together just to say we put a class together, we put the class together so that men will step up and do it. And I bought some new piano books, I forgot to bring them today, but if anybody's interested in learning the piano, I bought some piano books so that you can have the first lesson. If someone's interested, just let me know, I'll give them to you. I got the first lesson book, if you need one, come holler at me. I want people to learn the piano. We've never had a dearth of piano players in our church ever, but we're about to get to that situation here really soon, and I don't want that to happen. I want a next generation of piano players to step up and start playing. We already have, Gabe is working really hard, and I know that other people are getting there. We have Kayla for a short time, and then she's being stolen from us, but hopefully she can come back and play for us every once in a while. But we only have her for a short time, so if people don't practice and people don't learn to get skilled, to get cunning on these instruments, piano is something you have to practice at. The music is something you have to practice at or you're not going to get good at it, so we need skilled musicians to teach others also. That's why people take piano lessons, right? Playing in church is different than playing in a classic piano situation, or if you're playing recitals and things like that. It is different, so playing congregationally is different, so it's something that you have to learn to do. Look at 1 Chronicles 15. 1 Chronicles 15. I always feel inept teaching about music because I'm not good at it at all, but I can wing it enough here, and the Bible just tells us what we need to do, right? So what should we do? We should have skilled musicians to teach and lead others to do it also. 1 Chronicles 15, 16 says, So the Levites appointed He-man, the son of Joel, and of his brethren Asaph, the son of Barakiah, and of the sons of Merari, their brethren Ethan, the son of Cushiah, now skip down to verse 22, it says, Why did he do that? Because he was skillful. Like it makes sense to take the people that are skillful and instruct other people so that they could be skillful too. You don't want to take someone that doesn't know anything and teach them how to lead a song. That just doesn't make sense. I mean, if you're in dire straits, you know, get on to YouTube and, you know, but if you've done the class, you know, you think that just that one class is going to make you a great song leader. It's not. You have to practice. You have to go at home and practice in the mirror or something, you know, do the hand motions. I mean, you've learned the hand motions, but do you think that's going to just straighten you out for all times? You're just going to be this, you know, brother Bill up here with two hands doing this. I mean, he's classically trained. There's no way you're going to be as good as him right away. I'm just kidding. But I can do it sometimes, but all I know is happy birthday and I don't even think I'm doing the right. I'm just like winging it here. You know, you guys probably never noticed that. Now you're going to pay attention. You're like, he's not doing it right. But hey, I mean, I'm not calling anybody up to do happy birthday, so you should be thankful for that. Anyway, so look at 2 Timothy chapter two verse two. And you know, the Apostle Paul is telling Timothy, the pastor, to train people. And so as the pastor, it's my job to make sure people do get trained. And even if I'm not an expert in that situation, I'm going to grab something out of the toolbox. You know, if you don't know what you're doing, then you grab the best tool for the job, right? I can't be a hammer. I can't be a screwdriver all the time. I got to take out of the toolbox that I have and grab that tool and say, hey, hammer, hammer this nail in or whatever. And so I'm not saying you guys are tools, but I mean, I mean, use it as a metaphor, okay? Like, hey, the pastor called us tools tonight. I'm leaving. But it says, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. So you train people who train other people. That's how things get done. That's how things get done in church. And so we can take our music program to the next level, but we have to have men and women willing to teach and faithful men and women willing to be taught and to serve. So we have to have the heart to serve, too. And a lot of people just are just embarrassed and don't, I don't know if I can do that and get up and whatever. Hey, you know, Jesus probably didn't like being naked up on the cross either, but he still did it for us anyway. So if he can do that for us, I'm sure we can get up and lead a song and fumble through it, right? Or we can get up and play a song and maybe, you know, mess up on the violin or something and still do it, right? So and when I say women, too, you're like, well, you're saying women can teach in the church? Yeah, you can teach another woman how to play the violin, can't you? You can teach another woman how to play the piano. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. The Bible says the aged women, likewise, that they be in good behavior as become with holiness, not false accusers, not given much wine, teachers of good things. Is it a good thing to play music in the house of the Lord? Yes, it is. So it's not like women can't teach other women how to do good things in God's house. Number three tonight, not everyone has the same talent, but we can all still sing and play before the Lord. Look, you don't have to be some mega talent in order to sing in the house of the Lord. We all are supposed to sing. I mean, obviously, you know, we're not going to put someone that doesn't know how to play the piano on the piano because it just would be, you know, an uncertain sound, right? We want to have certain sounds going out, right? We want the music to sound somewhat nice, but, you know, look at 1 Chronicles chapter 25 verse 8 back in our text here. 1 Chronicles chapter 25 verse 8. I thought this was the perfect time for this, I mean, for this passage to come up while we're trying to train other people. So not everyone has the same talent, but we can all still sing and play before the Lord. Look what it says. It says, and they cast lots, ward against ward, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar. So when they're casting lots of who's going to play at what different times or whatever, the small, what's it mean by that? Well, probably the person that doesn't play as well with the teacher. So they cast lots, so some people that weren't playing as well were playing with the people that played well, is what I'm taking that to mean. They weren't the chief violinist or whatever. And I'm sure that like in orchestras, don't they have like where the chief violinist, they play towards the front and then the worst ones in the back or something like that? Is that how they do it? And it's not like they're bad, I'm sure they're still good comparatively speaking to like a middle schooler that just played the violin, just started the violin, but do you see how they're still playing together? It's not like he said, hey, you suck, you're not playing at all, he's like, no, we're going to cast lots to small as well as the great, the teacher as the scholar. So they're playing together still, they cast lots to see who's with who, and it's similar to how everything has already been done already. They have 24 different cycles that they do, and this chapter is no different. If you notice it was like, and he was one, and he was two, and this was the third, and the fourth, the fifth, all the way up to the 24th, because they had 24 different rotations just like the Levites did, just like the priests did. So they're rotating the same way, but they're casting lots to who's with who. So let's turn to Psalm 98. So just because you don't sing good doesn't mean you shouldn't sing out. We should still sing to the Lord regardless of how well we sing, because I know I don't sing well, you don't have to tell me that. Sometimes people will walk past me when I'm singing, they look at me like, you know, I'm just like, I feel your looks, I know it doesn't sound good, but it doesn't matter. We should still just sing out to the Lord. The Bible says in Psalm 98 verse four, it says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. So as long as we're singing with joy, and we're making a noise, we're trying, you know, it says make a joyful noise unto the Lord, just the people that are good, is that what it says? No, it says all the earth. So who's responsible to sing unto the Lord? All the earth. Are you part of the earth? Well then, if you're here at this church and you're part of the earth, then you're one of those people that should be singing. Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. So how does he want us to sing? He wants us to sing loud. Make a joyful noise. Sing loud. Doesn't say it has to be pretty, but there are people that help the other ones, you know, the ones that can carry a tune, people can kind of follow that a little bit, you know, but not everybody sings well. That's okay. But he still wants everybody to sing. Is that pretty clear from this verse? And rejoice and sing praise. We're supposed to be happy, you know, not worried about how we sound. We're supposed to just make sure that you're singing and making a joyful noise all the earth and make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. We're supposed to be rejoicing in the fact that we're able to be in God's house and we're praising God and thanking him for all the things he's done for us. So sing unto the Lord with the harp. With the harp and the voice of the psalm with trumpets and the sound of cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord, the king. Turn to Psalm 100, Psalm 100. I really like Psalm 100. It's one of my favorite psalms about just, it just kind of makes it real clear that he just wants us to sing to him. He wants his people to love him and to praise him. It's called a psalm of praise, Psalm 100, verse 1, it says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. So the last one said, you know, all the earth, this one says all ye lands. I mean, wouldn't that be the whole earth also? I mean, pretty much everybody lives in the land. So it says, serve the Lord with gladness. I mean, we should be happy when we come to the house of the Lord. We should be glad that we get to come and serve him, it says, come before his presence with singing. When we come into the house of God, we start with singing, don't we? This is what we're supposed to do. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God, it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. We are special. People are like, you think you're so special? Yeah, we are special. We're God's people. We're the sheep of his pasture. We should be glad about that. We should be thankful for the fact that we actually get to come into his house and it's not this building, it's us together in his name and we're singing to him. It says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. This is what the purpose of singing to him is. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, his salvation, I mean there's everlasting life there in the Old Testament for you, his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. The truth of the Psalms is just as true tonight as it is the day that this Psalm was penned. The truth of why we're supposed to sing, how we're supposed to sing and the fact that we're supposed to sing to each other, we're supposed to sing to be filled with the Spirit and the fact that we're supposed to be joyfully making a noise to the Lord and yeah, some of us make different noises than others but it doesn't take away from the fact that we're all supposed to sing. Isn't that pretty clear from both those Psalms I just read to you? We're all supposed to sing to the Lord. We're all supposed to make a joyful noise and when it says, make a loud noise. We should sing out to the Lord and sometimes I think we forget this and we don't want our neighbors to hear us because we might not sound as good as we, you know, because when the acoustics aren't good, it doesn't sound as good when we sing but regardless of that fact we should still sing out and just, you know, if you're so loud that you're drowning everybody else out, well then maybe they'll sing over the top of you to stop your screeching. I don't know but don't worry about that. Does God say to worry about that? He says just make a loud noise. Should you try to sing, yes, but if you can't, like Brother Bill was saying, these aren't my notes but he still did a good job leading the Psalms. He just didn't realize it but I thought he sounded just fine, you know, he missed a couple of words in there but like I'd probably miss a lot more than that. I mean I miss words just in my sermon all the time so he did a good job and you just, you know, when you congregationally sing it covers a lot of, you know, when we all sing together it covers a lot of mistakes. And look, we're not here to make fun of each other, right? So number four is the last point I have tonight is an organized music program is not optional, it's a commandment. An organized music program is not optional, it's a commandment. Look at verse number six in our text, I know we've already passed it but let's look at verse number six, it says all these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the Lord with cymbals, salt trees, and harps for the service of the house of God according to the king's order to Asaph, Jettathan, and He-man. So this is something that the king ordered, King David, and it wasn't ordered in the law of Moses. This is a new commandment, I've talked about that before, that all these things are something that David instituted and these commandments were kept, I was just reading in the book of Ezra that they still follow, even when they came back they're still following exactly what David said to do by them following their courses and I read that verse to you, what was it, like, with the priest, that John the Baptist's dad was Zechariah and he was in the course of Abijah or Abiah in the New Testament and they were still following it in Jesus's, when Jesus was born, they were still following what David had put forth. So and I'm not saying we have to do these courses, okay, we don't have enough people number one to have 24 courses here and we don't have enough song leaders to do that but we should still be able to be organized, okay. Look at 2 Chronicles 29 verse 25, 2 Chronicles 29 verse 25, and why, what's so important about that, well, organization is gonna help us to be better as a church, it just is and so getting the songs in on time, making sure that we have someone that's, you know, that we know that the person who's supposed to be here is here, all that kind of stuff, it's just important that we're all on the same page, we know where we're supposed to be, we know the songs that we're doing, those things need to be organized. Look at 2 Chronicles 29 verse 25, this is way deeper into the book of, you know, it's in 2 Chronicles nearly towards the end and they'd already been messed up many times but look what it says, it says, and he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with the symbols and the salt trees and the harps, isn't that kind of what we're talking about tonight? According to the commandment of David and of Gad the king's seer and Nathan the prophet, for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. So was it commanded by Moses, does it say when Moses commanded it, no, it says it was commanded by David, Gad, Nathan, and it says by the Lord, by his prophets. So ultimately, it's not just David going rogue, this is ultimately a commandment from God himself by the prophets and so this is why it's still instituted and I believe that, when did God say to stop doing music in the New Testament? I showed you two clear verses where it says that we're supposed to sing those songs, we're supposed to sing hymns and spiritual songs in the New Testament and, you know, it's just like anything else, if God said to stop doing it in the New Testament, we stop doing it, we stop doing animal sacrifices, we don't have to worry about not eating pork anymore, bacon is like, you know, dog treats for human beings, it's fine to eat them and, you know, we like them or whatever, right? But we don't, there's no commandment that says don't use musical instruments in the New Testament, so why do people come up with that? They just, they're deleting things that don't need to be deleted. So I believe it is a commandment to still have a music program and it should be organized. So it doesn't necessarily have to be exactly like David put it, but it should be organized. It says, and the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets and Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar and when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by David, king of Israel and all the congregation worshiped and the singer sang and the trumpeter sounded and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished and when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped, moreover Hezekiah, the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer and they sang praises with gladness and they bowed their heads and worshiped. So when everything was reinstituted by Hezekiah, everything was going the way it was supposed to go. So I do believe that it just needs to be organized and so then you get back into verse nine and I'm not going to read through all this again, but you have the 24 courses. Why did they organize it like that? So that there was always someone to fill in and I'm sure people got sick just like people get sick now and you always have someone to step in and step up to the plate and so if they're missing a sultry person or a cymbal person or if we're missing a piano player, we've always had someone that can step in and play the piano if that happens and I don't want that to stop. I want that to continue. If we're missing a person that does the song leading, we should be able to have someone to step in just like any other time and step up and do the song leading. So the music program at our church is very important. It's not something that we just, oh yeah, it's not a big deal, let's just do whatever. If you have a heart to serve the Lord, serve Him, but not just in your comfort zone, but be willing to serve outside your comfort zone because sometimes God asks you to do things that are harder or something that's not comfortable to you. I mean, preaching is not something that I was comfortable with and I'm still not always comfortable with. I'm way more comfortable than I used to be, of course, but it's not something that I'm sure most of you would agree that it's not something that's easy to do. It's not just, it is stepping out of my comfort zone. It's stepping out of a lot of men's comfort zone to get up and preach. They say that one of the most scary things that people are afraid to do is public speaking. People would say, oh, I preach a way better sermon than that. Well, get up here and do it then. Let's see how good you are. And I've heard people say, oh, you're not a very good preacher. Well, you come up here and do better then. And they're like, well, I can judge preaching without having to preach. Well, okay. Well, I would just shut up if you've never done it before. I mean, it's a little harder than you think it is, but it is a commandment to sing and worship him and to do the best job we can when we come into his presence. And it helps our church family around us, and it helps when visitors are here. And when we have guests here, we want to put our best foot forward. And when people come, I want people to know that we have a spirit-filled church, and we care about the songs that we're singing, and that we care about doing things well, and that we're organized. So let's preach to each other. Let's preach to our visitors with our song service. I mean, cuz I never even really thought about that before until I started thinking about this sermon. I was like, wow, I mean, he's saying preach. He's setting forth the order of his seers that are actually musicians. And they're full-time musicians. Now, I just think that that's something that we really need to get a hold of. It's not just part of the service that we just do to get through an hour or something. That's not what it's for. The songs are for the Lord. And we serve him, we serve him with joy, and we serve him organized like the Bible says. So if you're asked to step up and do something and you do it, well, let's just do it with all of our heart, like the Bible says. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the divisions of the musicians, the lessons that it can teach us in the New Testament. Lord, I pray that you'd help our music program to grow. I pray that you'd put it in people's hearts in our church to step up and serve in ways that they may never have before. And Lord, for those that have been serving for a long time, to, Lord, still have a heart to continue to minister in song. And Lord, thank you for the people that have been here for so long that have just continued to stick with the music program. And Lord, that they wanna minister with song to our people and to others that visit our church. I pray, Lord, that you just bless our new song leaders in a very special way. And also those that are learning the piano and learning other instruments, I pray, Lord, that you would just bless the music program here at Foundation Baptist Church and our other church plants that we have. And I pray that you just bless in a very special way. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. There's no negative songs in the book, but there is sad songs. So 275, 275, almost persuaded. We are closing him. On the first. Almost persuaded, now to believe. Almost persuaded, Christ to receive. Seems wholesome soul to see. Go Spirit go thy way. Some more convenient day, on thee I'll call. Almost persuaded, come, come to thee. Almost persuaded, turn not away. Jesus, symbolic to hear, angels are lingering near. Prayers rise from hearts so dear, overcome. Almost persuaded, harvest is past. Almost persuaded, who comes at last? Almost cannot avail, almost is but to fail. Sad, sad, that bitter wail, almost but lost. Brother Robert, can you close this with a word of prayer?