Is All Christian Music Equal?

It's good to be here. I maybe still have opinions like I did then. I hope I'm a bit more gracious 20 years farther on than I was then. I'm not sure. Maybe you get to decide that here this evening. But it's good to be here. We're from Gvaytown, from the Strodes and Mills Congregation. So greetings from there, right along 522.

I am a high school teacher, principal at the Bethel Christian Day School there in Big Valley. Been there 20 years, which time flies. And I do work with At Mason during the summer. So many memories with Brandon then.

I enjoy working with young people. I enjoy the energy, the things that they continue to teach us, teach me, as I relate to them on a school level. He mentioned we have a family of 11 children. God has been very gracious to us. Lord willing, most of them will be here tomorrow evening. Our oldest son is at SMBI at the moment, and our second son is helping with Lyrica Sacra in Lancaster. So that's where they are this weekend. So Lord willing, they're here Saturday, perhaps Sunday morning. We'll see. But God has been good to us. We're very blessed.

Life is full, but it's full of blessings. Music is definitely a personal issue, and it's one of God's greatest gifts to mankind. He created us as people that make art, that make music. But whenever God has something good, Satan always has a counterfeit. And the better God makes something, the worse the counterfeit perhaps becomes.

Music is a huge subject. It's one of those subjects that the more you study, the more you don't know. And I have found over the years in discussions with people, it tends to be those that don't know very much that are the most opinionated about it. But it's just one of them subjects. There's always more to learn. It's definitely a controversial subject. It's an issue that's always going to have some gray in it. But Lord willing, as we think about knowledge, as we think about gaining some thought processes from the Scriptures, that maybe that grayness can get a little bit smaller.

No, you don't have to draw the lines. I do. But my plea as parents, as young people, that you draw a line somewhere. I certainly don't have all the answers. I would like to just simply share some things from my heart, things I've studied and learned about over the years as I looked at this issue. And we're going to endeavor to apply some biblical principles and some pondering together, applying these to music.

It's not about what I like. It's what God wants. I can enjoy all kinds of music. I've been in music, like music ever since I was a little guy, playing the records and scratching them all up for my parents in the process.

But I always liked music. So the question is not whether I like it or not. The question is, what does God want me to listen to? Is there some parameters? Is there something that I can think about, gain from, and analyze? Music is a very negative and a very positive subject at the same time. This evening, we're going to be looking at the negative. Tomorrow evening, the positive, which I prefer.

But in a case like this with music, looking at the power of the negative is, I think, very, very important for us. And how has it infiltrated us? How has it changed us? How is it impacting our lives?

One of my concerns is the instantaneousness, if that is a word, of technology and music today. As a young man, as I struggled through music as a teenager, we had the radio. So I could listen to what I wanted to on the radio. But if I was going to purchase any music, I would have had to go to Walmart. I guess I could have done mail order. But to go to Walmart or go into a music store in the mall and pick up something that I knew wasn't good and stand in front of a cashier and meet her in the eye and pay for it was a big deterrent to me because I knew that would be a bad testimony.

Today, with our cell phones, we have any music in the world in 30 seconds, right there. How are we handling that? How are we analyzing that? Or do we just simply open it up and listen? How do we train ourselves? How do we train our young people? It's through our minds. God says in Isaiah, "Come now, let us reason together.

Sayeth the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." So this evening and tomorrow, we want to do some reasoning together. And I believe we're called to do that as a brotherhood.

Take endeavoring to take biblical principles and reason together and ponder and see how they apply to how we live our lives.

Brother Brandon just preached here recently about building convictions in your children and the need to struggle through the hard questions. And in that struggle is where we solidify our belief system. So this evening, maybe we'll do a little struggling. I don't know. We'll see what God has for us.

Our thinking: The devil wants your mind. There is a battle for the mind between God and the devil. Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." All those processes begin up here, how I think about something.

Satan wants your heart, and God wants your heart. That involves thinking about who I'm going to choose, who I'm going to be. What's frustrating about that is the Satan gets us by default, right? "If I do not choose God, I'm the devil's."

And so there's that battle going on. God made us creatures of choice. We're to follow Him. He wants us to choose Him. And there's that internal struggle between my flesh and between what God wants. That's ongoing, that you'll never walk away from in this life.

And in this battle for the mind, how does God and Satan reach into our lives? Through the five senses, right? That is how we are connected to the world around us. So the devil's going to try to use the things you see, the things you touch, the things you smell, the things you taste, the things you hear to draw you away from God. And God's going to try to do the opposite.

Proverbs says, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." We must guard each avenue into our minds: seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and hearing. And this evening, we're going to be talking about the hearing. But guarding those avenues, because those things all impact us and impact our thinking.

The culture around us has lost this battle as a whole. I want a little bit of a history lesson.

Take you through some eras of time. There was a pre-modern era, which was ancient times before Jesus to 1789. Now, that's a very specific date. Maybe that's not completely true. But in the pre-modern era, absolute truth was found through revelation. No matter where you went in the world, no matter what religion you were, you believed that there was something out there that is true. If it's Buddha or Muhammad or God. But there was something outside of us that was bringing and revealing what is true. As soon as we step into the late 1700s, we have the Enlightenment era, which is how America was founded, which is another whole discussion. But in that era, which we call the modern era, their idea was, "Mankind, we're smart enough.

We're armed with rationalism. We've got science on our side, and we're going to access truth. It no longer is given to us. We're going to find it and pursue it."

But since the 1970s and on, we have what we call the post-modern era, which is where truth is not revealed from something outside of us. Neither is it found somewhere, but it's created. Absolute truth is simply a joke.

How many genders are there? Last I heard was 60 some, I think. How many genders are there? Two. Is that right? Amen. Absolutely. Okay. That's because we have created truth.

So if I'm going to be looking for the truth that God has established, that we believe is revealed through His Word, I need to be thinking properly. I need to be guided by His Word and by His Spirit in my life so that I can endeavor to have the mind of Christ.

Now, where do we do our thinking? Again, just a little bit of just a little bit of a science lesson. Where does this happen? What happens in that little mushy thing up here in our heads? That's incredible. And I know enough about it to be amazed. 20% of total energy that you consume and the oxygen that you breathe, 20% of that goes to that little blob up here.

It's an incredible control center created by God. And in the front of that, we have what's something they call the frontal lobe. And in that frontal lobe is the prefrontal cortex. And that is where we analyze. That is where reasoning happens, where there's logic, where there's problem solving, where we plan things, and so on. The prefrontal cortex regulates our thoughts, our actions, our emotions. It's what we call the working memory, how I or what I'm doing.

Perhaps the ability to keep in mind an event that just occurred, or maybe to reach back into the recesses of the mind and pull something out from 20 years ago. Those things happen in that prefrontal cortex. And I was going to relate a story, but for lack of time, I'll just quickly hit it very quickly. There was a man in the 1800s who was working on the railroad, and he had a gunpowder accident. He had a 37-inch bar, an inch and a quarter wide in width, go up through his chin at the top of his head. And he actually survived.

But it hit the prefrontal cortex, and it changed him completely. His character changed. He went from being a decent person to a very immoral person, etc. And he ended up being a case study for this. But his prefrontal cortex was tampered with, and it changed who he was.

Now, in that prefrontal cortex, we have some brain waves, lots of them. But I want to talk about two of them. And that's beta waves and alpha waves. Beta waves is when you are engaged, when you're sitting in the classroom, or hopefully in Sunday school, or under the preaching of the Word, that you're analyzing incoming information. You're alert, and it's working.

Second one is the alpha waves. And this was in that prefrontal cortex, again, which is our control center, where the brain is just simply relaxed. And it's very open to incoming information. That information is just coming in, but it's not really being analyzed. We're just letting it flow right in there. The brain is relaxing. So as normal people, we go through this on a daily basis, back and forth between these two states. Eastern religion learns how to put themselves in an alpha state, meditation, get your mind to go blank and just relax.

Now, when the frontal lobe is affected by something, thinking is affected. Drugs and alcohol damage that frontal lobe. Many years ago, we had a man that came to our church who burned his brain on drugs. And there was no question something was different. He was nice. He could carry on a simple conversation.

But something was wrong because he had messed up the control center, and it changed who he was. And there are certain kinds of music that put us in this alpha state, and where we're just open and vulnerable for whatever.

And that process, I believe, we open up a channel, perhaps, for the devil to reach into this, into our minds. So is my thinking processes are my thinking processes important? Yes, because thoughts create feelings, and feelings bring emotions. And emotions bring actions. Therefore, all those processes have some moral connotations, right? The way I think, the way I feel, the way my emotions are running, and how I process them affects who I am.

Therefore, those things become a moral discussion.

Brandon also mentioned in his sermon, and I like this, he said, "Perhaps the better question is not what I believe, but who I will become."

Your character this evening lies in how you think, because everything comes out of that. Philippians 2:5 says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, things of good report, if there's any virtue, and if there be any praise, read about these things." Now, what does it say? Think about these things.

Jesus says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect." That begins with endeavoring to have the mind of Christ, to try to think as He does.

So I'd like to endeavor to use some thinking processes, some reasoning together, to analyze music this evening.

Like I already mentioned, certain kinds of music can put us into this alpha state. And if you've ever watched, ever been in any pop concerts, or watched pop concerts, what do you see? A lot of people zoned out, just totally doing what the music is asking them to do, whether it's dancing, whatever.

They're in an alpha state. They're not analyzing what's happening. They're just enjoying the experimental or the experiential physical and emotional experience of what's happening. And if we're not careful, the devil can use that state to come in and affect our thinking and our analysis.

Because we think we will make choices, there's no question about that. Joshua said, "But as for me at my house, we will serve the Lord."

Our goal this evening is to allow the Lord to give us clear direction through His Word as to the characteristics of the music we allow into our churches, homes, and everyday lives. What are some things we can use to analyze? What are some tools? Our key verses: Ephesians 5:10, "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." Now, if you're going to prove something, that takes action. If I'm going to evaluate who laid the best block or who made the best piece of furniture, we're going to take someone who knows something about it, not someone who doesn't, someone who knows something about it, and he sits down, he analyzes it, and he proves that this one is of better quality.

And we do this a lot in our lives, and we need to. What is best? I want to test the waters and see what is acceptable to the Lord. It's going to take action on my part, on your part. "Blessed is the people," Psalm 89, "that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance." We're going to spend a lot of time talking about sound tonight, not the lyrics, but the sound. By the way, that's what music is anyways.

Lyrics are not music. Music is music. So what does it sound like?

David says, "Those that know that joyful sound." And perhaps we can analyze that a bit. Do I know exactly what he's talking about? No. But can we at least use it as a reference point to think about? Where does God want us to go here?

Music is a very important part of our worship to God. In the King James version of the Scriptures, prayer is mentioned about 501 times.

Scripture meditation is mentioned about 533 times. And music is referenced about 500 times, referenced or mentioned. Now, you were taught from little on up how to pray: close your eyes, fold your hands, whatever. But we know that there's a way to pray. We know how to pray. We've been taught how to study the Scriptures. We've been taught how to interpret the Scriptures, using the Scriptures to interpret itself, and how to analyze it faithfully in the right way.

And yet, music gets very little instruction. But according to that, it's just as important as the other two.

In Zephaniah 3, it says this: "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing." That's what it says God's going to do. There's a lot of beautiful music these days.

But that's going to be pretty special when God sings over his beloved. What's that going to sound like? God sings. "We're commanded to sing. It's not an option as Christians." James 5: "Is there any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Has any married? Let him sing psalms." Ephesians: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Sing aloud unto God our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob." So this is something that, since it's an integrated, integral part of worship, that I need to be participating in on some level. Maybe we'll talk a bit more about that tomorrow, Sunday morning.

What does that look like for me as a Christian who wants to sing, to be a part of music? Philippians 1:9 and 10. I want you to think with me on the chronological order here. Paul says, "In this I pray that you love me abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ."

Notice the progression here. It begins with knowledge. You cannot be wise about something you don't know. It's impossible. If you ask me to fix your car and give you wise advice about the engine, I can't do that, because I don't know anything about it.

If I was to move from being a teacher to a farmer, what would be the first thing I'd do? Learn how to farm. Knowledge. You cannot have wisdom without knowledge. Look what he continues to say: "Knowledge and in judgment, for what reason? That we have the knowledge, then, to decide and approve what is excellent, not what's mediocre, or maybe to make the difference between the mediocre, the good, better, and the best.

That we may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ." When you and I do something or listen to something, we're putting our approval on it, whether we actually really want to or not. Many years ago, I was talking to a young man in the front of a bus. And we started talking about music. And he said, "Excuse me." He said, "I'm going to go to the back of the bus," because he said, "If I learn something, I might have to change." And he went to the back of the bus.

Now, at least he was honest. But you know what he didn't? He didn't want knowledge, because he had been forced to deal with it. So Lord willing, you get some knowledge tonight that you're forced to deal with, right? Not because of me, not because of me. It's not to do with me, but with God.

Ephesians 1 Thessalonians says, "Prove all things." And do what? Hold fast. The good stuff. Hold fast to what is good. Get rid of what is bad. The most important question you answer or, well, yeah, you need to answer about music is this one: Is music itself I'm not talking about the words. Is the music itself a neutral issue?

All through recorded history, no one has said music is amoral or neutral until the 1960s. The American church was losing its young people like crazy in the rebellion of the '60s. The young people were just leaving. There's a group of musicians that got together and said, "We need to do something." They decided what they're going to do is take rock and roll music, pop music, and Christianize it to endeavor to keep the young people from leaving. For them to be able to do that in a very derisive culture, in a culture even out in the world, where the parents hated Elvis and the Beatles, and the young people got upset, so they'd take their record players to their bedrooms and listen to it, because Mom and Dad said, "There's something wrong with that music."

So in that kind of culture, they had to say, "You know what? We have to decide that the music doesn't matter." That's the only thing they could decide. So from the 1960s on, we have a group of Christians who say, "Yes, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters about the sound. All that matters is the words."

The experts, though, in the world will say, "No." This evening, I'm going to quote the world a lot, not because I'm interested in pursuing the world, but because the world's honest about what they do.

This says, "Music is not just a..." This is from some music therapist, New York University. "Music is not just a special part of life. It represents life itself. From it, we receive inspiration, excitement, and emotional enrichment. With it, we create, communicate, and express who we are."

Is who we are moral?

And by the way, I want to make something clear, and I'll say this several times tonight: I am judging not one person this evening. Not at all. God judges people. I don't. So if I mention names, I'm not judging them. But I am required, as a father and as a leader, to analyze what comes to me on a silver platter or a silver CD that they want me to consume, and they want my children to consume. I am required to analyze that. God's judgment on them is His, not mine. I hope they're all going to heaven. But you see the difference? There's a big difference there. I'm not judging them. Only God does that.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't have that up there. Music is not just a special part of life. It represents life, and it expresses who we are.

Again, that's a moral discussion.

Elvis Presley said this. This happened. J.D. Sumner, J.D. Sumner and the Stamps, backed up Elvis. There was three, at least three Southern Gospel quartets that backed up Elvis in his concerts, his secular concerts. And he really liked J.D. Sumner, and a personal friend of his. And prior to J.D. Sumner and the Stamps, the Imperials, which was another Southern Gospel quartet, had backed up Elvis. They left to join the CCM music world. And so they left Elvis. They go out, and they recorded a Christian rock album. And they send Elvis the record. And J.D. and Elvis are in the same room together. And Elvis takes this record, puts it on the record player, plays it for a little bit.

He takes it off the record player. He breaks the record across his knee and says that: "If you're going to sing rock, why don't they sing rock? If they're going to sing gospel, why don't they sing gospel?" Now, if the King of Rock and Roll says that, I rest my case.

Jerry Lee Lewis, who was another contemporary of his... There's a book called Hungry for Heaven from Steve Turner. And Turner says this: "They," meaning those group of men, Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and so on, "they could never envision a marriage of rock and roll with religion. To them, that would have been like fornicating on an altar."

It's pretty strong language. These men, no way. Ray Charles, a jazz contemporary, a black jazz musician, he passed away. Been good a little while ago, but he was contemporary there. Notice what he says: "To have played jazz in a church would have been an abomination.

If I go into church, I'm deadly serious. Everyone must stand alone at the time of judgment. Since I play jazz music, I won't record a religious album, because I was brought up to believe that you can't serve two gods. If you're going to play the blues, then play the blues. If you're going to do religious music, then you do religious music." It may be antiquated. I don't know. But I still feel the same way today, 1981. You can't do both.

Now, he obviously chose to walk away from his upbringing, because he played jazz music. But he says, "I know I'm going to stand before God." And these two don't mix.

Does music communicate? So if music is a moral issue, does it communicate with us? Does music have a language? And I'm here to say that it does. So I want you to close your eyes, and I'm going to play a clip of music, and then we're going to talk about it. So close your eyes and listen.

Okay, quickly, I need some adjectives. What did you think about? Patriotism? Okay, good. More? Marching? Okay, parade? Okay, now let me see what words I put up here.

Oh, look at that. How did I know what you were going to say? Okay, another one. Close your eyes. You want to turn that up just a little bit, please? Thank you.

RAH! Right? What'd you think about? Just what I did, right? Absolutely. Okay?

Someone's going to come around the corner and get you. Okay, one more. Close your eyes.

Okay, adjectives there. Or nouns. What are you thinking?

Relaxing. Relaxing? Okay, good. Any more?

We're in America here. Where do you hear that? Wedding. Wedding? Sure. Let's relax. Absolutely. Thoughtful? Wedding?

Now, what just happened? There was not one word some. But every person in here felt the exact same thing. Three very distinct emotions. You all felt the same thing. Was there a language? Absolutely. And it had nothing to do with the words.

So I want to give three tools tonight, if I can... It's hard to summarize something this... Something this big. But I want to give three tools tonight that I'd like you to take with you. Again, not because it's me or whatever, but just something to think about, something to help us pull the tool out of the tool bag and analyze something. The first tool is this: that the music itself is a language. It communicates. There is not one blockbuster movie that has been made without music, and there never will be.

I'm not... Don't go watch movies. I'm saying the impact of music is incredible to the feel of any kind of film or anything like that. The music itself is a language. And all languages can be used for good or for bad.

We need them. We use them. But I can get up here in Casa Blu Street, or I can get up here and share the Word of God. It's the same language.

There's a brain specialist, Mr. Dr. Richard Pellegrino. I'm not sure if I'm saying his name right. He says this: "Music triggers a flood of human emotions and images that have the ability to instantaneously produce very powerful changes in emotional states." We just kind of experienced that. If I'd had had that music a little louder and a little bit longer, I probably could have made you jump, if I'd had kept you keep your eyes closed for a little bit. We experience some pretty intense emotions.

He says, "Take it from a brain guy. In 25 years of working with the brain, I still cannot affect a person's state of mind the way that one simple song can."

And that's because God made it that way. That's why music is very powerful, and it can be used for the good or the bad. 1993. I know this is old, but it's still never... I've read this other places. Communication psychologist said this: He said, "What percentage is communicated as we communicate with each other, human being to human being? What percentage is communicated through the actual words?" He says only 7%. 38% is your voice inflections. 55% is your facial expressions, which is 93% aside from the actual words that are said, is how we communicate.

So I come home from work, and I ask my wife if she has a good day, and she goes, "Yeah, it was lovely."

What'd she communicate? The exact opposite of what she told me, right? Because everything else superseded the words she actually used.

During a 1993 interview, Michael Jackson, who has now gone, explained the reason for some of his filthy sexual gestures during his concerts. This is what he said. He said, "It happens subliminally. It's the music that compels me to do it. You don't think about it. It just happens.

I'm a slave to the rhythm." He said, "I'm just doing what the music is telling me to do." And he got very popular doing it. In Isaiah 23, it says this: "And it shall come to pass in that day that tire shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years, shall tire sing as a harlot." Hmm?

Well, that tells me there's a way to sing that's not like a harlot. Does a harlot dress a particular way? Does she handle herself in a particular way?

Yeah, and she sings a particular way, too. Now, I'm not here to necessarily define that. But that tells me that somewhere out there, there's music that sounds like a harlot.

Music makes its mark on our lives. This man was the president of the Urban Communication Foundation. He said, "Each medium of communication leaves its mark by altering our institutions and personal attitudes and values." Wow. Now, he's not a Christian.

But he says, "It alters our institutions. It alters my personal attitude and my personal value system. Are those moral issues?" Absolutely.

Plato said, long before Jesus, "Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws." He says, "I can run this nation if I can make the music."

"Music has the power to form character," another man says. Again, not a Christian person. He just said, "That's what music can do." And if it has the power to do that, how is it doing it? It's by affecting our thinking patterns, right? It's affecting how we're thinking, which affects our value systems, and it affects our character.

This quote, though, is from a Christian source. And I appreciate the insight here very much. "Worship practices that only evoke good feelings, and thereby foster a character that seeks instant gratification, might be enormously successful at first. But the cost, though not immediately obvious, may be high. The very methods that attract crowds might also prevent the development of habits of reflection and learning.

A focus on self and feelings limits the nurturing of a godly and outreaching character."

She's saying the methods that bring the crowds might prevent the development of what we will call discipleship.

Up there in Mount Union, so about 15 minutes from us, the Creation Music Fest is held there every summer. It's the biggest Christian music festival on the East Coast. Brings 100,000 people there or so through there in a long weekend of Christian rock music and preaching and so on.

And then on Sunday, they had... At least they did often have a mass baptism. So if you became a Christian, then we would baptize you on a large scale Sunday morning. Now, please, I want to make clear: I'm not judging anybody. And God is sovereign. He can use what He wants to. If He wants to use it, He may.

But where's the discipleship after the fact? The music that brought them to Christ, if that truly happened, is not going to discipleship Him... Discipleship them in getting closer to more and more of the knowledge of Christ. That's what this lady's saying. It's incredibly appealing.

It'd be great if we get 100,000 people to one of our church services, right? We don't have the appeal that does. But does it nurture discipleship? Does it nurture truth in our lives? Again, I'm not judging the people. Don't misunderstand me.

"Why Johnny can't tell right from wrong, and what we can do about it?" This is also not a Christian man at all. He says, "There's a chapter in the book called Music and Morality. He said, 'Rock confirms the young people's right to have and express strong, sensual emotions. The message is, your feelings are sacred, and nothing is said above them. This is, in essence, all that rock is about.' He continues, 'Rock can't be made respectable. The music will simply subvert the words. No matter how many reforms are attempted, rock and rap will always gravitate in the direction of violence and uncommitted sex. The beat says, 'Do what you want to do.'" This is 19... I don't have the date on this. '90s, I believe.

He's saying, "This music can't be made respectable, no matter how hard we try, because the music is the language."

Or the language that is superimposing tremendously over top of the lyrics. And we'll get to that a bit later. More quotes. This man says, "When you play music, you embrace a style. A style suggests ways to sit, ways to sing, ways to feel the rhythm. It also suggests ways to think. A style even defines a musical community, a group with shared notions about music and its purpose. The shared style allows for musical communication without misunderstanding, a common sense of what is being said and why."

It's very much a part of who we are, is what he's saying. And I'm going to suggest that the style of music almost forces you into the lifestyle that goes with it. So if I would go down to Nashville, and I would put on a Stetson, cowboy boots, denim jeans, a big bell buckle, and grab an acoustic guitar and walk down the street, would I connect with a whole bunch of people just like that? Absolutely. We would understand how we think. We'd understand what kind of music we sing. We'd even probably understand some value systems there. Or I could go to Nashville and wear all black clothes, put on a bunch of black makeup, etc., maybe some...

A lot of body piercings. I could also walk down the street, and I would also connect with another group of people. Immediately, they would know a lot about me, because I'm part of that heavy metal rock world. The music forces us into a type of lifestyle. Again, I'm not judging people. But I want to show you a few pictures. And let's see if we can figure out what kind of music they sing.

This is Skillet. They are the most popular... This is a couple years old, as you see. But they are the most popular heavy metal Christian group in America.

And yeah, I guess I should have asked the question: Do you think they sing country or bluegrass? How do you know?

Okay, black, black, black, black, black.

Now, this is a picture of Toby Mack. What kind of music does he sing? Well, he does the hip hop. He's got the flat hat, the little goatee, the loose fitting tie. I mean, this is really cool. Okay, it fits his music. I'm not making fun of him. Okay, I'm just saying.

And I'm not judging him either. Please, please, please don't go home saying I passed judgment. I'm not. But I'm saying he dresses in a way that fits his music. The music forces him into that. How about this? I don't know anything about this band. But what kind of music do you think they play?

They're a Christian country band. Does it fit? Absolutely. Simply by looking at their clothes, you have a pretty good idea of the kind of music that they play. Now, by looking at our clothes, do people have an idea what kind of music we participate in?

Is there a connection?

MTV said this: An MTV executive... MTV is one of the worst things that happened to American music. 1980s. We not only have that... The music, the rock and roll being listened to, but now we can watch it and everything that goes with it, all the sexuality and immorality that goes with it. This man says, "Music tends to be a predictor of behavior and social values. You tell me the music people like, and I'll tell you their views on abortion, whether we should increase military arms, and what their sense of humor is like." That's a pretty powerful statement. Basically, let's paraphrase. He's saying, "You tell me what kind of music he listens to, and I'll tell you what kind of person he is."

Now, is this across the board? No. But there's still something powerful about that idea, that the music is so much connected. As Brandon said, it's a personal thing. So the music I'm a part of reflects on who I am.

Now, I'd like you to take your Bibles to 1 Samuel 16. And I want to look at three effects of music that we find here.

1 Samuel 16.

Saul is having a problem. He's having a bad day. It says that an evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul. Verse 14. And I don't know what that's like, but it says here that an evil spirit from the Lord...

So you explain that one to me. I can't. But anyway, that's what it says. "An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. And so they say, 'Listen, Saul, go get someone who can play you some music.' So they go find David. How old David was, I don't know.

David comes into the presence of Saul. Verse 22. "And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, 'Let David, I pray thee, stand before me, for he hath found favor in my sight.' And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took in harp and sang a song..." Oh, no, no. "Played with his hand.

So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." We see three things that happened when David played his harp. I don't envision this sounding like rock and roll, but a harp. And David played it well. The word "cunning" in verse 16 is someone who does this very well. David knew how to play the harp well. He played it. Saul was refreshed physically. He was made well emotionally. And this evil spirit left. So all three aspects of humanity were affected by this music. So I'd like to think about those three aspects. Number one: How does music affect us physically?

What kind of body language goes along with the music that you listen to? What kind of motions does the music call for physically? One of the things that rock and roll does, and what pop music does largely, is something... Is the use of syncopation all the time. Now, a little bit of syncopation, we find that in our hymns all of the time. A little bit here and there, a little bit like some salt in your food, perhaps. But if all you had was salt, we'd have a problem. So the syncopation that is found in a lot of pop music plays around with the rhythms.

Rock music accents beat two and four in a four-beat measure.

Our normal body rhythms are one and three. So one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. So if we sing a song like "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee," we sing it: "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." Now, you try to flip the accent. I can't even sing it for you. "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." Try to sing it. It's almost impossible. All you're doing is flipping the accent, messing with the rhythm, which was what rock and roll does.

Syncopation tends to communicate sensually with the body. It tends to gravitate towards inappropriate motions of the body.

We want the correct accents. So let's think about... Jesus loves me a little bit. So if we sing "Jesus loves me" correctly, we would say: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Right? That's the correct accents. Let's flip it like rock does. And we have: "Jesus loves me, this I know, ho, for the Bible tells me so, ho."

Hip hop or rap music tends to accent the third beat. So we get: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong." Right? That groove just shows up. It just does.

Why? Because I'm playing with the rhythm. I'm not even singing the song. All I'm doing is quoting it rhythmically. But you see the difference?

I want to give you... To me, this is a big one. But maybe I make too big of a deal about this. So tool number two: "If the motions are wrong, so is the music. It's the music which causes the motion. Text can't."

Amazing Grace, the words don't create any motion. The music does. "And if the motions are wrong, so is the music." So we take a song like "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." And maybe... And if you've got a good song leader who's got a lot of energy, you might find yourself "Joyful, Joyful," tapping your toe a little bit. That's fine, because that's a proper rhythm.

When we flip that thing, the rhythm tends to move from our extremities—our toes and our head, perhaps in our fingers—to the middle part of the body, to the sexual part of the body. All you have to do is watch a smidgen of MTV, which I wouldn't recommend at all, even a lot of Christian music videos. And you'll see that. You'll see the center of the body moving as much or more than the extremities.

If you see someone walking down the street with their earbuds in, and they're doing their thing, what are they responding to? The text? Or the music? Perhaps you pulled up at a stoplight, a young man sitting there in a car, and he's absorbed in whatever's going on inside there. And he's bebopping, and he's whatever. He is totally consumed. Again, I'm not making fun. I'm just pointing out. He's totally consumed by the music, not the text.

Now, the text might go along with what he's feeling. But the music is creating the motion.

If you want to test your music, and you have little children, they're very honest. It's pretty fascinating. Take your music, crank it up real loud. You got to turn it loud. And let them do what they want to do in front of it. And see what happens. If they start jiggling and wiggling, gear it up.

Because they are responding to the music. They don't know what the words are.

Early Christian... Early rockers... Not Christian rockers. Early rockers said this: One man said, "By carefully controlling the sequence of the rhythms, any pop performer can create audience hysteria. We know how to do it." So his group, it was called the Mamas and the Papas, don't know anything about it, besides this quote.

They had a concert in Phoenix, Arizona, and they created a riot. They went in deciding they're going to use their music to see if they can create a riot. And they did it. Again, is that the words? Or is that the music itself?

Another man from the same era said about his group: "One of the reasons we're successful is that we're able to keep the music hard and direct, so that it communicates directly with the body." Now, a lot of flags should go up there. "Our music is first to enter what? Our minds. And we're to ponder it and analyze and think about what we're singing and how we're singing." He says, "We're popular because we go straight to the body, directly. That's why people like us."

They knew how to communicate in a way that, I'm sure, created some inappropriate motions. So one of the questions I get asked is: Are drums wrong? Can they be used properly? So I'm going to play three sets of drums, and let's talk about each one and discuss the rhythm. So here's the first one.

Right? Right? That's a march beat. That has proper rhythm. Nothing wrong with that. Right? Okay, listen to this one.

How about this one?

I'm not going to move around the way that music would like me to.

And by the way, there's no music there. That's just rhythm. But it calls something out of your... It just does. It calls for something. And what's it calling for? So I think for parents, for me anyways, that's a big one.

It's a pretty simple tool. I don't care what the words are. If it creates some sensuality in my children, I don't want them listening to it.

Music also affects us mentally. Music is an art. We know that. But it's unlike the graphic arts. We obviously know there's sensuality in graphic arts, the pornography issue and all of that industry. We know there's sensuality there. But there's a sense where sensuality in music is more powerful and more subtle, because you don't dance to pictures, but you can dance to that.

It actually creates something that you want to respond to. Quotes from some secular sources here. They say: "All music expresses emotion and evokes emotion within us." Interesting. How about this: "When music is shared, the listeners are invited to empathize with the composer's experience and emotions and add their own." Now, my father's still living. So I cannot empathize with you if your father has passed away. I can sympathize. But I can't empathize, because I haven't gone through it. This person is saying, "Music is powerful enough that I can feel the same thing the performer's feeling by just taking it in."