Choosing Blessing: Discernment in Faith and Music

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I remember many years ago my dad gave me a piece of advice I've never forgotten. This was long before I had any or realized what my gifts were in ministry or anything like that, but he said Santosh if the Lord ever wants to use you you'll face two choices: either to impress people or to bless them. [00:01:25]

We seek to obey it without trying to meander around it—meander is a big word—without trying to twist our way around it, because the rest of Christendom has twisted its way around it, or large portions of it. We seek to simply obey God's word, and so that's true about prophecy. [00:04:00]

I hope our hope as elders and I believe that it's the hope of all of the adults in this room, that is that you will make the right choices when the time comes. I first of all to commit your life to Jesus, that's the most important choice. [00:07:19]

The Bible talks about the Holy Spirit talks about through Paul that it's possible to lay a foundation on Jesus Christ. This is not what I intended to speak on so you can look it up some other time. He talks about it's possible to lay a foundation on Jesus Christ and yet build something that is completely destroyed at the end. [00:08:29]

Music has the ability to sway the soul. There is soulish preaching I've heard, I've listened to, I've heard here and there bits and pieces of soulish preachers who use their soul power, their ability to speak. I mean if you're a gifted speaker you could do that with atheism. [00:11:18]

Perhaps your greatest enemy, our greatest enemy, is soulishness more than worldliness. We preach a lot about a high standard, we preach against worldliness, we want to have nothing to do with it, but then the danger can be that we don't know the difference between what's spiritual and soulish. [00:12:42]

The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. He's using an example of something that's really sharp on this earth. Think of a surgeon's scalpel. I've heard that that knife is so sharp you could just lightly cut and it would cut deep. [00:14:18]

We believe that prophetic music can have a way of preparing our hearts to receive God's word, and the music itself can be prophetic. And that's why we're not big, we don't sing songs that are very light in words. You know, as you know, sometimes you think man there's so many words in all these songs. [00:20:00]

Music has a very, very powerful ability to influence and so that's why I wanted to mention that. We're very careful about what kind of music we sing and even what kind of music we listen to in our home, but as far as it pertains to the church, the music must have a spiritual value and build up. [00:22:48]

I want to show you another example of singing while I'm here and that's in the book of Mark. This is a very tender moment, perhaps one of the most tender moments in the gospels, and that is when they partook of the Lord's table, the Lord's supper. [00:30:19]

I see how easy it is and as one who loves music and enjoys it and loves to play instruments and learn new instruments and loves to see children learning instruments and singing, I love to sing. I still recognize the music has its place, and the devil will use music. [00:49:33]

The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. See the power there in the word of the cross, the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. [00:57:48]

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