So, if tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM someone gave you $1,000 what would you do with it?
A huge fire broke out on a local farm.
The nearby volunteer fire department arrived on the scene in their old, dilapidated fire truck.
The old fire truck rumbled right into the middle of the flames before it stopped.
The firemen jumped out and frantically started spraying water in every direction.
Before long they had broken that huge fire into two fires that they were able to control and snuff out.
The owner of the farm was so impressed with their work that he immediately wrote them a check for $1,000.
A local news reporter was on the scene, and he asked the volunteer fire chief how the firemen would spend that gift money.
“Well, the first thing we're gonna do is get the brakes fixed on that old fire truck!”
What is the first thing you do when things happen in your life?
What do you normally do first?
And does it matter?
When something terrific happens
When something terrible happens
When something happy happens
When something horrible happens
Does it matter what you do first?
Is there one great thing you can do that can have a deep and powerful impact on your heart and mind and body and attitude immediately?
Yes – well, actually there are two great things.
What are they?
Let’s find out – listen to James 5, verse 13…
13 Is anyone among you suffering?
The word for suffering here means any and all kinds of difficulty.
Do you have…
Any kind of difficulty in your life right now?
Any kind of suffering in your life right now?
Sure you do – we all do.
Life is hard
Life is difficult
This is particularly true for Christians.
Why?
This is what Jesus said…
Luke 9:23
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
What is Jesus talking about?
He’s saying the only way we can live is by dying – dying to self.
What does it mean to die to self?
It means that your greatest desire in life is not to get your way or to demand your way, but rather your greatest desire in life is to love and honor Jesus first and most.
Following Jesus is kind of expensive – the cost of following Jesus is your whole life.
Sign me up, right?
We live in a world of fear and worry and anger about our human rights and our individual rights.
Remember, though, that Jesus has called us to take up our cross daily and follow after him.
And where are we following him?
The old song says, “I’ll fly away!”
Where are we flying away to?
To a land – to a country – to a celestial shore – to an actual place and the only place where joy shall never end.
Are you looking for this land, this country, the shores of our beaches, this church, this town, this place to bring you joy that never ends?
If so, then you will be disappointed.
That doesn’t mean life on earth has to feel like hell.
But life here is not where joy shall never end.
If you are going to profess to be a Christian, if you are going to take up your cross daily and follow after Jesus, then suffering and affliction and feeling like you are losing earthly rights and actually losing some of your earthly rights are guaranteed and we should not be surprised.
So, what do we do in our moments of suffering and affliction?
James tells us…
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray.
When suffering and difficulty come in life, pray.
Our first reaction to suffering should be to pray.
Is it?
Is prayer your first reaction to suffering or affliction or difficulty?
Or is your first reaction to suffering or affliction or difficulty look and sound and feel more like…
Complaining?
Despair?
Anger?
Fear?
Revenge?
Reposting an angry post on social media?
Joseph was 23 years old, and he was engaged to be married.
His fiancée was riding her horse near a river in Northern Ireland.
She fell off her horse while crossing a bridge over the river and drowned – it was the day before their wedding.
Not long after the death of his fiancée Joseph heard the truth about Jesus – maybe for the first time or maybe he had grown up in church hearing it over and over again – but he prayed, died to self and began to follow Jesus.
Overcome with suffering and grief and despair, he found everlasting salvation and discovered the deep, deep hope of the gospel.
Many years later, his mother was experiencing a time of deep sadness and Joseph wrote a song for her – not expecting that anyone else would ever see it.
In fact, the song wasn’t published until after he died.
The song was “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
That song included the following words…
Joseph Scriven
O what peace we often forfeit
O what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then…pray.
The Apostle Paul kicked that up a notch and said that we should pray without ceasing.
How in the world can you pray all the time without stopping?
Well, praying without ceasing means that we pray in such a way that we understand we are utterly and completely dependent on God for all things.
And praying without ceasing means that we don’t quit just because our prayers aren’t answered the way we want them to be answered.
We keep praying, because the goal is not just to have our prayers answered.
The goal in praying is to know this God we talk about and come to church to worship – this God that so loves us and so gave his Son to die for us.
James is telling us that as followers of Jesus Christ we must train and develop our minds and our mouths to have an automatic gut reaction to the difficulties of life.
So, do you pray?
Is prayer your first gut reaction?
Is praying part of your daily, natural responses to life?
James gives us an automatic trigger for suffering…
Pray – pray, pray, pray!
But what if we aren’t suffering?
Listen to the next part of verse 13…
13 Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.
There are many joyful moments in life.
Many joyful moments when everything is good.
Especially if you follow Jesus.
In fact, we could make an argument that every moment of a Christian’s life is in some way full of joy and cheer.
Even the suffering moments.
Why?
Because we have Christ!
Because we have been saved!
Because we have been rescued from darkness!
Because we can lay our heads down at night and whisper to our hearts…
“I am a child of the King!”
“I am His and He is mine!”
If you have reason to be cheerful it is because of the grace and mercy of God in your life.
No matter what the circumstance
No matter what the occasion
Your cheerful joy is a reflection of the grace of God.
So, if you are cheerful, sing!
The automatic trigger for joy in a Christian’s life should be praise to God.
What James is promoting is a way of doing life where all of our attention is focused on the goodness and greatness of God.
Someone said it’s like we have a huge spiritual trampoline and everything that happens in life bounces off that trampoline toward God.
Suffering?
BOING!
“Here, God!”
“I don’t know what to do!”
“I need Your help!”
Cheerful?
BOING!
“Here, God!”
“I only have this because You are so good to me!”
“I only have this because You are so loving to me!”
These commands for life are amazingly simple…
Are you suffering?
Pray and sing.
Are you cheerful?
Pray and sing.
We are about to enter another time of transition with singing and musical worship at our church.
I say another time of transition because the music of the church is always in transition and always has been and always will be until Christ returns.
It’s been said that throughout history when times of renewal and revival have stirred in the church new songs were written.
And not just revival – during a time of sorrow and sadness Joseph Scriven wrote a “new” song 166 years ago.
During a time of stress and strain, I wrote a “new” song about God 23 years ago.
In the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible we see God’s people singing.
In the early church we see three main things…
Preaching
Praying
Singing
The Apostle Paul challenged and encouraged the churches at Ephesus and Colossae to speak to one another and teach and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
It’s been said that the church has pretty much always been singing old songs and news songs.
The whole of the Bible sends us the same message…
If you are suffering – pray and sing
If you are cheerful – pray and sing
Someone might say…
“I’m not a great singer.”
“I don’t care about music.”
“I don’t like singing.”
I attended two graveside services this week and at both there was impromptu congregational singing and at both I observed people who did not have good singing voices – but they sang – and their singing impacted my life.
To hear a group of people singing about the grace of God and the hope of heaven in a place of death has a powerful impact on your heart and mind.
So, even if you don’t care for music or don’t think you can sing that well, please sing – your song matters.
Oh yeah, and we’ve been commanded to sing praises.
So, don’t disobey God – sing!
So, we will keep singing together – and this church will be singing together long after we are dead – because the worship of this church doesn’t primarily depend on me – or you.
The worship of this church depends on the good and great news of the gospel – and the gospel has been alive and well here for more than six decades.
So, what could help us during this singing transition?
Well, there are about a gazillion things I could say about church music and singing – some of those things would make some of you mad and some of those things would make some of you happy, so, instead of doing any of that, let me just share one thing from Scripture and a few practical comments.
Here’s the attitude every one of us should have about church music – Jesus said…
John 13:35
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
Now, what does that look like in the musical worship of the church?
John Frame is 82 years old – 25 years ago he wrote a book called “Worship in Spirit and Truth.”
I was assigned that book for a class in graduate school 23 years ago.
When I was reading it, I saw some things that grabbed my attention and captured what I think matches musical worship with the command from Jesus to love one another.
John Frame
Some complaints of the older generations may be petty, creating unnecessary conflict over matters of musical taste, but generally their complaints are more serious than that.
John Frame
One’s hymnody is his language of worship; it is the language of his heart's conversation with God. to lose the hymns one has grown up singing is, therefore, no small thing.
John Frame
The younger generations should learn to sympathize with this sense of loss and to accommodate their desires to the spiritual needs of their fathers and mothers and Christ.
John Frame
But the opposite is also true: if the older do not bend somewhat, the younger will be deprived of their own language of worship – those forms of God's Word intelligible to them by which they can best grow in Christ.
John Frame
In this respect, both sides should defer to one another in love in the spirit of Christ.
Both sides should bend with love toward one another.
John Frame
It is interesting that the music of younger generations always tends to be criticized by older generations as irreverent, while the music of older generations tends to be criticized by younger generations as lacking joy and vitality. And these generation gaps parallel similar ones in secular musical circles.
John Frame
These recurring patterns suggest that some of our complaints may be based on factors other than a proper zeal for God.
Both sides should bend with love toward one another and pursue a proper zeal for God, not a personal zeal for style.
So, let’s move forward through this singing transition with love.
That kind of love displays humility and humility displays greatness, so, let’s be a great church.
And part of being a great church is loving and listening.
So, go visit the “Feedback” tab at hollandavenue.com
We would love to have to take a quick survey on musical worship – it should only take you about 43 seconds.
Listen, are you suffering?
Then pray and sing.
Are you cheerful?
Then pray and sing.
I don’t know exactly what’s happening in your life right now, but I do know that today is a good time to turn to God and sing and pray – why?
Listen to these descriptions I came across…
Lig Duncan
Lord, I didn’t know it was going to be like this. I didn't know that I was going to struggle with chronic illness. I didn't know that I was going to bury a daughter and her children. I didn't know I was going to deal with marital infidelity. I didn't know I was going to have to rear children on my own. I didn't know that I was going to struggle with depression for year after year after year, and I've never gotten relief. I didn't know that vocation was going to be a problem for me for much of my life. I didn't know that my children would betray me. I didn't know that it was going to be so hard to care for my parents. It's been twenty years now that I've been caring for mom and she's hard to care for.
Lig Duncan
Lord, I didn’t know, but I’m turning to You.
Are you suffering?
Turn to Jesus and pray and sing.
Are you cheerful?
Turn to Jesus and pray and sing.
And maybe you could sing this song…
John Rippon
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
30 tomorrow morning at nine a.m. Somebody gave you $1000. What would you do with $1,000? What would you do with the story is told of a huge fire that broke out at a local farm and the local volunteer fire department. They showed up and they rolled in in their old dilapidated fire truck and that old dilapidated fire truck rolled right up into the middle of this huge fire and all of the fireman jumped out. They started spraying every direction that they could, and after a short amount of time that fire had been divided, they were able to put the entire fire out and it was gone in just a moment. The farmer was so excited, so pleased with their great work that he immediately wrote the volunteer fire department a check for $1,000. There was a local reporter on the scene and the reporter came over and was talking to the fire chief and the reporter said, that is amazing how y'all just rolled right into the middle of the fire with your fire truck and then put everything out. That was amazing. What do you think you're going to do with that? $1000? And the fire chief said, well, the first thing we're going to do is get the brakes fixed on that fire truck. What's the first thing you do when life happens? When, when good things or bad things happen? When difficulty comes, when when good times come? What what's the first thing you do when terrific times happened? When terrible times happened? When happy times happened? When horrible times happens? What's the what's the first thing you do? What are your first happens? And doesn't matter? Doesn't matter what you do first in all of the adventures of life? And is there one thing that you could do that would have a huge impact on your heart, and your mind, and your body and your soul and your attitude and everything else in the moments of life, is there one great thing you could do that would change those moments help you in those moments? Well, there is in fact, there's two great things you can do and what are the two great things we're going to find out together? James. Chapter five verse 13. James right. This is anyone among you suffering the word for suffering here in their religion and language. It means any and all kinds of difficulties. So do you have any difficulty this week? Have you had any suffering this week? Anything going wrong, anything hard and like? Well sure all of us do right. We all have difficulty. We all have hard things, especially as christians, especially as christians. Hard things happen. Life is hard. Life is difficult. Why James is right in here. To the early church and the early church did not have a comfortable life, they had government oppression, they had community oppression. It wasn't easy being a christian in the early days and the church was a hard thing to be a part of because there was so much oppression, so much against the church, so for us as believers, it is especially true that life is hard and difficult. Why? Well this is what Jesus said in luke chapter nine, jesus said if anyone is going to come after me, if anyone's going to call themselves a christian, then they must take up their cross daily and follow after me. The cross is an instrument of death in history. And so really what jesus is saying is this, if you're going to live then you have to die. If you're going to be alive then you have to die, what does that mean? What it means? You have to die to self in order to follow jesus? What does it mean to die to yourself? When the simplest way we can put it, it means that you do not fight to get your way, You do not demand to get your way, rather the most important desire of your life. What's first in your life is to put jesus first and most to love and honor, jesus first and most in all the moments of life, no matter what's happened to die to self means that you no longer put your opinions or your desires. His first and most in anything that's going on doesn't mean your desires don't matter, doesn't mean your opinion doesn't matter. It just means it's not first. The love and honor of jesus is first and most so following after jesus is kind of expensive to follow after jesus will cost you your whole like all of you, everything that's in, we are living in a time in an age and a culture of society where there is much talk about individual rights, human rights are our rights as people, our rights as citizens. Remember the call to follow jesus is they call to give up, you're right. That's the very call of jesus. The call is to die to self. It doesn't mean that our rights don't matter, doesn't mean that we shouldn't have human rights and individual rights, but they're not first and most what's first and most is you take up your cross and you follow after jesus. The call of jesus is to die to self and to follow him. But where are we following him? The old song says what? I'll fly away. Where are we flying to? The song is on the tell us we're flying to a land, we're flying to a country to a celestial shore. To a place to the only place where Joy will never Yeah, are you looking for this land? This country, The beaches of our shores. Are you looking for this place, this world, this earth to be the place where your joy will never end. If so then you will be disappointed. This place is not the place where joy will never end. That doesn't mean that our life has to be like a hell on earth. It just means that this here is not where joy will never end. So if we're going to follow after jesus, if we're going to take up our cross, profess to be a christian and follow jesus as christians, then we need to remember that part of what that means is that suffering and affliction will come. Part of what it means to follow after jesus is you will feel like you're losing your right sometimes and sometimes you will lose your right. That's part of the guarantee of following after jesus. So James is being super kind of the church, he's like hey, by the way, suffering will happen. Affliction will happen. If you're going to follow jesus, life will be difficult and life will be hard. Sign me up, right? That's what I'm saying. But what are we supposed to do? It's guaranteed the suffering will come. If it's guaranteed the deflection will come, what are we supposed to do? Well, James tells us in the next part, there is anyone among you suffering, then he must pray and suffering and difficulty comes pray. Our first reaction to suffering should be to pray is it I mean if we're really honest with ourselves is is that our first gut reaction to suffering and difficult? Do we immediately pray? When when things are chaotic, when things get out of control, when things don't go the way that we want them to go? Do we immediately pray? Is that our practice our habit or when things don't happen? The way we want them to? And difficulty comes when suffering comes when affliction comes is our first response. More to complain or to be in despair or to be angry or afraid or or to try to have some revenge or to repost that angry post from the angry politician as soon as we can is our first response when suffering and difficulty and confusion comes to pray? Or do we do other things? Do we run in other directions? Joseph was 23 years old. He was engaged to be married. His fiancee was riding her horse along a river in northern Ireland. She went across a bridge over that river and somehow fell off the horse, fell into the water and drowned. It was the day before their wedding. This was a real moment and joseph's life. This isn't just a story. And not long after her death, Joseph heard the Gospel maybe for the first time, maybe he'd never heard the truth about jesus, but he heard the Gospel. Maybe he had grown up in church and hear it over and over again, but he had never responded, but overcome with grief over losing his fiancee. The Gospel captured his heart and he prayed and he died to self and he began to follow, Jesus, overcome with grief, overwhelmed with despair, he discovered the truth of everlasting salvation and he discovered the deep hope of the gossip in the middle of suffering. In the middle of affliction, he discovered hope. Many years later, his mom was having a season of sadness and sorrow and it was so deep that he decided to write her a song. He had no intentions of anyone ever seen this song, but his mom, in fact the song was never published until after he died and that song was what a friend we have in jesus, joseph wrote that song for his mom thinking no one would ever see it, but her part of that song has these words, oh at peace we often forces. We just sat on a piece. I want anything to do with it. Why? Oh what needless pain we bear? Oh because we do not carry everything to God. Think prayer. James says anybody suffering. Then he should pray the apostle paul. He kicked that up a notch. He said we should pray without ceasing now in the world. Do you do that? How do you pray nonstop? We'll pray without ceasing means that you pray in a way that understands you are utterly and completely dependent on God. Just considering your life today, your ability to have lunch, your ability to have a car, your ability to have a home, your ability to breathe everything about who you are praying without ceasing means you understand that is a reflection of the grace of God. You are dependent on God. Praying without ceasing means, you keep praying even when your prayer is not answered the way you want it to be answered. You keep praying and you keep praying and you keep praying because the goal is not ultimately just to have your prayer answered. The goal is for you to know this God that we gathered to speak and sing and pray about today. This God who loves you so much that he so gave his son friend. See, the purpose of our praying is to know who God is and so James is telling them, look when you're suffering, you need one huge gut reaction. You need to turn to God, you need to turn to the one who created you, the one who loves you, the one who gave his son for you. You need to make it the routine of your mind and your heart and your mouth to turn to God over and over again. Are you suffering been praying? Let that be your first gut reaction, Let that be your automatic trigger when something difficult, something hard, something unpleasant happens in life? Pray pray pray pray doesn't have to be fancy, don't have to know a lot of words, but you can pray, you don't have to pray the same prayer that you pray over the food. You pray some little different, but you can pray, you can cry out to God. But what if you aren't suffering? What if something else has happened? James says in the next part of Verse 13, is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. There are many joyful moments in life, moments where everything is good and just like we said with suffering, this is especially true for christians, suffering is especially reality for christians, but so is cheerful joy. It's especially a reality for christian. In fact, we could make the argument that every single moment of a christian's life, even the terrible ones are marked with joy. How how can we make that argue? Because we no jesus because we're saved in any and every moment our salvation changes the equation, no matter what's happening, no matter what we're experiencing, being in christ changes everything. The reality that we've been transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of life. That changes everything. The reality that we can lay our head down at night and we can whisper to our souls, I am his and he is mine. I am a child of the king that changes the moment, changes everything. If you have reason to be cheerful, it is because of the Grace and the mercy of God in your life. In any moment in any situation, your ability to have joy, Your ability to be cheerful. Your ability to think good thoughts and feel good feelings is a reflection of the grace of God in your life, his kindness and his love towards you. So are you cheerful? Didn't sing the automatic trigger for cheerfulness in a christian should be praised to God. What James is promoting here is is not radical but we tend to not live like this, right James is promoting that we approach every single thing in life with an attitude that reflects on the greatness and the goodness of God. But that's how we function. We function as people that in every moment in life we say how great thou art in this moment, it's terrible or as terrific as it is God you are great. Everything I have is connected to you. Someone said it's almost like we take everything in life and we throw it on a trampoline and everything just bounces up to God right? So you take suffering Buoying bounces up to God and it's us saying God I don't know what to do here here, I'm sending this up because I don't know what to do. Please are you cheerful boy? It goes up to God God here, I'm only cheerful. I'm only joyful because you are so kind and so loving and so gracious. I just breathe that last breath because of your kindness. So God, my cheer is a reflection of you. Thank over and over again. What James is doing, what the whole of the bible does is it points us back to the greatness and the goodness and the kindness of God in every single moment of our life. These commands are not hard and I'm so tha because life is hard. So I'm thankful that God and his kindness hasn't made the bible heart. These commands are simple. Right? Are you suffering praying? The singing? Are you cheerful, pray and saying, pray and sing, pray insane as we shared earlier. We're super excited for brad and Georgia and their family. And as we enter another time of transition and our musical worship. How do we need to be thinking and praying? And the reason I say another time of transition is this church as every church is always in transition when it comes to music. Always, every church has always been in transition will always be in transition until jesus returns. It's been said that throughout history when the church is experiencing renewal and revival, that new songs are written, new songs are written about the greatness of God in times of renewal and revival, but not just renewal and revival in times of sorrow and sad, joseph Scriven. I wrote a song for his mom in the middle of Sorrow and Sadness. It was a brand new song 166 years ago, 23 years ago, in the middle of stress and strain. I wrote a brand new song about God. It's been said that the church is always singing the old and new songs about God because it's what we do. If you look in the new testament and the old testament, you see that God's people were always singing. You see in the new testament that the one thing the three things rather that marked the early church was preaching and praying and praising preaching and praying and singing. It was part of who the church was. They sang their praise to God the apostle paul. In writing to the church at Ephesus and colossi, he said, look, I want you to teach one another, I want you to encourage one another. I want you to admonish one another with songs and psalms and spiritual songs. Over and over again. We see God's people singing old songs and new songs. We see God's people praising the message of all of the bible is the same. It says it in different ways and at different times are you suffering pregnancy? Are you cheerful, pray and sing? We sing because we're happy we're seeing because God is good. Someone might say that well I'm not a great singer. In fact I don't even like music, I don't care about singing, I wish we didn't do it. I tended to graveside services this past week at both of those services. There was impromptu congregational singing. Now I will admit impromptu congregational singing at graveside services usually feels a little bit awkward and there were people there that have beautiful voices and there were people there that didn't have beautiful voices and when you're standing outside in a place of death and you hear voices singing about the amazing Grace of God and the hope of heaven, it does something. And for me personally to hear people who aren't great singers singing about the Grace of God and the hope of Heaven, it helped me, it encouraged me it impacted, so if you are somebody that says, well I don't like music and I can't sing, well, let me just play with you. If you're a believer, please sing. It matters to me, it matters to others when there's an opportunity for christians to sing together, Let us sing together, whether we can sing great or whether we can't sing at all, let us sing, Let us praise God together. Sure not everybody is supposed to be on stage singing a solo, we got that, we know that, but his believers, we all have the ability to sing, oh and by the way, we're actually commanded to praise God. So you need to sing, don't disobey God, we need to sing, we have reason to sing, so we'll keep singing as the church will keep singing as a congregation. And long after we're dead, jesus has not returned this church will still be singing without us. You know why? Because the worship of Holland Avenue baptist Church doesn't depend on me and it doesn't depend on you the singing at Holland Avenue baptist church doesn't depend on me and it doesn't depend on you. The worship. The singing depends on the great and grand and glorious news of the Gospel. That's what worship depends on. It depends on the glory of God and the message of jesus and the truth of the Gospel and the Gospel is alive and well at this church has been for six decades and Lord willing will continue. So we sing and we worship because God has been so good, we sing and we worship because the grace of God has found us, So we have the privilege of being a multigenerational church. That's a big deal. It's a huge honor. It's what a family is supposed to be right. A family is supposed to be a lot of different ages, a lot of different people, you know, we see that in scripture, right? The body of christ, we're not all supposed to be hands were not all supposed to be feet, we're different. So it's a huge privilege that our church is not just senior adults and our churches, not just young people. We are multi generational. That is a huge gift from God. In 2021, our church is a fantastic gift from God. Please be thankful for God's kindness to our church. He is being so good to us. So how do we transition as a church over and over, day after day, sunday after sunday, year after year and singing and praising. Well, there's a lot that can be said about church music and singing. Some of it makes people happy, Something that makes people mad, but we're not going to go in all these directions. I just want to give one verse of scripture and then just some practical comments for us to choose. And here's the scripture. This is the attitude every one of us should have about church music, about singing, John 1335 by this. All men will know that you are my disciples if you have. I feel like I underlined every sentence on the page and all of those sentences. I think perfectly match up what jesus has called us to do and loving one another and how it matches with musical worship. So I just want to share some of those thoughts with you from john frame this is what he says. Some complaints of the older generations may be petty, creating unnecessary conflict over matters of musical taste, but generally their complaints are more serious than that one's him. Nobody is his language of worship. It is the language of his heart's conversation with God to lose the hems, one has grown up singing is therefore no small thing he goes on. The younger generation should learn to sympathize with this sense of loss and to accommodate their desires to the spiritual needs of their fathers and mothers in christ. But the opposite is also true. If the older generation do not bend somewhat, the younger will be deprived of their own language of worship, those forms of God's word intelligible to them by which they can best grow in christ. He sums it up with this and this respect. Both sides should defer to one another in love in the spirit with christ, multigenerational churches should bend with love toward one another. It's the call of jesus on our lives, not just with music, but with anything we've been towards one another in love, we differ toward one another in lot. He goes on, It is interesting that the music of younger generations always tends to be criticized by older generations as irreverent, while the music of older generations tends to be criticized by younger generations as lacking joy and vitality and these generation gaps parallel similar ones in secular musical circles. Let me just give some commentary to that. What that means is what we argue about outside the Church about music. Sometimes we argue about inside the Church about music and that shouldn't be in the words, what's happening outside should not affect what's happening inside. Our goal is to bend toward God. And then he says this, these recurring patterns suggests that some of our complaints about music in the church may be based on factors other than a proper zeal forgot. So both sides should bend with love toward one another for the purpose of having a zeal for God, not zeal for style. We should not be Z Ealing for style, we should be dealing for God. And if we're as Ealing for God, you know what happens, the style will work itself out, you know why? Because we're bending and love toward one another. That kind of zeal for God is produced by love for God, and that kind of love for God produces humility in the church. And humility, according to jesus, is a sign of greatness. So, let's be a great church. Let's be a great church that bends and differs and loves not just in musical transitions, but in any transition, The goal of the church is for us to make the most we can of Jesus Christ. And can I just say in 2021, the church is struggling in the we are struggling maybe more than any other time in history and the focus actually being on Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about our church in particular, I'm talking about the church in general and this past year we have been prone to wander towards every other issue we can find in the universe, except for jesus. And so whether it's music or preaching or or prayers or bible studies or anything else in the world as believers, because we have taken up our cross to follow after jesus. We've been we defer to one another in lot, that's what it means to love. That's what it means to be humble, that's what it means to be great over and over again. That's the picture that we see in the scriptures. That's the call of jesus, part of being a great church is loving and learning. So get a little homework assignment for you ready, a little homework, go to our website on avenue dot com and go to the feedback tab and we have a little musical worship survey. We'd love for you to take, it will take you 43 seconds, Okay. It may take you more now, but I mean it's not long. Okay, We love to hear for view about musical worship in the term. James says, anybody is suffering, You're not suffering today. We have people in our church family that are suffering this morning. We have people in this room that are suffering with something and James says if you're suffering, pray insane, pray insane. And he also says, are you cheerful for things good or things going well then pray? And so we do understand how much we need one another because there are days that you are down and you need my worship and there are days that I am down and I need your worship, we need each other is part of what the churches and can I also just boast in the Lord that from my perspective we have come through this year and God is being tremendously gracious to our church. There are so many good and great things happening in the life of the church. The salvation conversations that happened this week through VBS cancel out whatever discouragement we may have experienced from this pandemic. At least it does for me. Someone coming to faith in christ through the ministry of our Church cancels out my discouragement of the news because the greatest thing in all the world is knowing treasury and being saved, jesus James says, are you suffering or your cheerful prancing pray and six, I don't know exactly what's happening in some of your lives. I do know what's happening in some of your lives, but I can say this every single one of us today, all of us are out of place today where we need to pray and sing, where it would be good for us to turn to God. Why we just read your description of some things that have happened in some people's lives Over the last 10 years. Found this from another pastor and something he was sharing. Listen to this list. You're probably going to hear yourself or you're going to hear somebody you know in this list. Lord, I didn't know it was going to be like this. I didn't know that I was going to struggle with chronic illness. I didn't know that I was going to bury a daughter and her Children. I didn't know I was going to deal with marital infidelity. I didn't know I was going to have to rear my Children on my own. I didn't know I was going to struggle with depression over and over again with no sign of relief. I didn't know that I was going to struggle keeping a job my entire life. I didn't know that my Children were going to betray me. I didn't know that it was going to be so hard to care for my parents. It's been 20 years now that I've been caring for my mom and she's hard to care for You. Hear anything in that list that can connect with your life. And then he goes on to say this, Lord, I didn't know. But I'm turning to you. I didn't know God, I didn't know it was going to be this hard. I didn't know I was going to be this stressed. I don't know. I was going to be this angry. I didn't know I was going to cry this much. I didn't know I was going to go in my room, shut the door and stay away from my family as much as I could. I didn't know it was going to be this hard. I didn't know there was going to be this suffering. I didn't know all of this was going to happen. But God, I'm turning to you God, I'm turning to you when it feels like my country is going to hell in a handbasket. I'm turning to you. I'll never turn to the president first. I'm turning to you. I'm turning to you God, I didn't know my health and my family and my job. I don't know all of these things were going to happen. But I do know this you love and God you sent your son to die for me. So I'm turning to you. I'm turning to you. I know there's some other things I can turn to God and they'll help for an hour, two hours, three days something. But I'm turning to you because you are the lover of my soul. You love me must Are you suffering? Turn to christ and pray and sing? Are you cheerful? Turn to christ, pray sing and keep turning and keep turning and keep turning and keep turning. Why? There's another old song that I think helps the words go like this. The soul that on jesus has leaned for repose. The soul was turning to jesus over and over again. I will not, I will not desert to its foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shape. I'll never. No, never, no, never for saint. That's why we turn see
