There are the churches that still are trying to figure out whether it's appropriate to be boisterous in worship. to sing loudly and to dance and to shout. You have the right to worship the way you want to worship. What you don't have the right to do is judge someone else's style of worship as wrong. Worship is more than an act.
It's an attitude. Hello, and thanks for spending part of your busy day here with us on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepard.
Well, the Bible talks about praising God with a trumpet, with a lute and harp, with loud cymbals, and with dance. And yet these and other forms of worship are often criticized. Stay with us now to see the damage we can do by condemning forms of worship that are different from our own. Online, you'll find us at pastorpaul.net, where you can listen to Destined for Victory on Demand. That's pastorpaul.net.
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Now here's today's Destined for Victory message. Can't we all just get along? I've told the story when I was coming up. That was right when the first debates were beginning about whether it was okay to bring drums and stuff up in churches. And here we were, young people, and getting saved, you know, in the late 60s and early 70s.
And that's when it was first becoming an issue. And certainly in the early 70s, I was personally exposed to some of that as some of us were getting saved and we wanted to, you know, we had to sing the hymns because that's what the saints sang in service. But we were beginning to get exposed to some of this new gospel, contemporary music. Andre Crouch and the disciples were coming out and what have you, and Edwin Hawkins and them, oh, happy day, and stuff like that. And so, as young folks, we got excited.
We said, We want to sing that and went to the pastor. We just getting saved. Said, can we form a little youth choir? And we want to sing some of those old songs. And he said, Well, let me listen to him.
And he listened to him and heard that the lyrics were about Jesus, but it had, you know, low contemporary sound. And he said, Yeah, no, this would be fine. I I've always loved, appreciated different styles of music. And we said, Now we need drums for this. Need drums for this, and so bass guitar and stuff like that.
And so he said, All right, yes, no, let's go on and do that.
Now that's going to be new for our church, and so you know, but I'll help the saints deal with it. And my dad's mother was a member of his church, and she was one of those old saints. And, you know, my grandmother was the kind of person when you looked at her, you knew she was saved. Just, you know. You know the kind of people I'm talking about?
There's just no question when you look at Zena, she got to be saved. Ain't no way in the world sees worldly. And so my grandmother, old-fashioned. Child of God, and the day came when the youth choir was debuting our music and what have you, and we had the drums. And she, when she heard about it, she went to her pastor, who was also her son, and she said, You mean you're gonna bring drums up in the church?
And he said, Yes, Mama, some of these young folk are getting saved, and they have some songs. They want to sing the songs about Jesus, but they need drums. And she was one of those nice saints who knew you're supposed to respect the leadership and what have you. And so she said, all right. And so she sat there.
Through that first service where we sang our songs and the drums were played. And she went to the drummer after the service, who was a friend of mine, and she said, Listen, young man, I want to let you know that I I was really disturbed when I heard there were gonna be drums in this church. And she said, but I have to admit, as I sat here, I found myself patting my foot. I found myself really engaged in the music, and I, she said, I have to admit, I enjoyed it. And she said, I also enjoyed that you don't play them too loudly.
See, we're trying to tell him that long as you hold that volume. We won't have a problem if you take it up. And then our church learned to adapt and rolled right on. And what it did was allowed us to reach more people with the same gospel. That was in the hymns.
But it allowed us to reach more. people. without compromising anything of essential faith. And we have to learn those kinds of lessons. And now, of course, we who were the recipients of that kind of grace, and the saints let us bring in our drums and guitars and stuff.
Now we're challenged all over again because now you got hip-hop. And you go up to youth church, a generation examples church, and they sometimes they'll have, in addition to their praise and worship courses, hip-hop. And folk rapping for Jesus. Running all around to say, everybody say ho! And you know, that's not our.
We didn't cut our teeth on that.
So, you know, we Our position, for the most part, if we stand there looking at and say, What are you running around for? Everybody scream. I don't see a like scream.
So now we're challenged. We're becoming the generation that isn't quite sure what's going on. But I have given the same grace to them that was given to me. I said, as long as y'all keep the lyrics clearly, Jesus, and you're letting your light shine, go for it. Reach your generation.
Reach your generation, and we'll be behind you a hundred percent. Because we have to understand that these are not essentials. In some other churches, it's Christian rock that is the point of contention. And you know, Christian rock and some friends of mine who pastor in another part of the country, that's their challenge. Their young people didn't want to do rap, but their culture was rock, just you know, real loud guitars and just screaming the lyrics and stuff like that.
But they'll learn to adjust too. In fact, one of my friends, the pastor's wife, she said, Yeah, in fact, I'm excited. My son is the lead screamer. She called him the lead screamer. I mean, that's just his job.
Just hollering for Jesus. And you get challenged at these points. You get challenged because you find out how with it you're not sometimes. You deal with other generations, other cultures. And the church loves fighting worship wars.
We need to end worship wars. And respect everyone and let everyone have a little piece of the pie, so to speak. And without saying your stuff is wrong. We have to learn how to do that. There are the churches that still are trying to figure out whether it's appropriate to be boisterous in worship.
To sing loudly and to dance, and to shout to the Lord with the voice of triumph, and to say amen when the word's being proclaimed. And some folks still trying to figure that out. We've been doing it for decades. And they're still trying to figure out is it okay? And some still trying to cling to one verse of scripture: the Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silent before him. And they try to use that to impose their style of worship.
Now, when you come up in this church, don't be saying amen and don't be singing and waving your hand. We don't do that here.
Well, fine. You have the right to worship the way you want to worship. What you don't have the right to do is judge someone else's style of worship as wrong. In our church, we have quiet folk and we have loud folk. And that's 'cause in the kingdom you have quiet folk and loud folk.
And so the church ought to reflect the kingdom. And you know, we have folk who came to this church, and if they had any church exposure in their upbringing, it was very often some of them say, you know, it was those very quiet churches. And so some folks say, when I first came here, you know, I had to make some adjustments. Make some adjustments with folk, you know, waving their hands and what have you, and some of them dancing to certain songs and what have you. And I had to make some adjustment and people shouting out and their praises.
I said, Thank God for adjustments. Adjust on. Yeah. Because you can't impose on other people. And you know, if you think our church is loud, I can take you some places.
I just thought I'd let you know. When you say, you know, it gets kind of boisterous sometimes. That's relative. That's relative to your experience. Go with me a few places.
I've been in places where they will take over the service. You sing the wrong chorus, and you messed up. They will take over. They will be dancing and running and skipping and carrying on for a long time. I'm sitting there, I want to preach.
Yeah. Can't get to the message because they're worshiping and rejoicing in the God of their salvation. A friend of mine said the most powerful experience in worship I ever had. I was an arrogant Christian, an American Christian, and just thought we had it all. But I went to Africa.
and went to a church in an African uh village. And she said, it changed my life. I saw people who had walked for hours, walked for hours to get to church. And when they got there, they stood for hours. And she said, the way they worship, the energy with which they praise God, they didn't have my kind of clothes, they didn't have money, they didn't drive up in a nice car, but they were so grateful that God had saved their souls.
That he had changed their lives. Said their music was powerful. They were anointed as they praised God. His presence came near. And she said, I said, I thought I was coming here to teach them how to worship.
And they taught me how to worship. Don't go away, the rest of today's Destined for Victory message featuring Pastor Paul Shepard is coming right up. In John eight thirty two, Jesus said that the truth could set us free. And that's why destined for victory is here. To share timeless truth for a victorious life, and to show as best we can that Jesus Christ is exactly who He claims to be.
You can help keep these messages coming your way by sending a generous gift today. Stop by Pastor Paul dot net to make a safe and secure donation online. That's pastorpaul. net. Or call eight five five three three nine five five zero zero.
Whether we worship God with instruments or without, let's remember that when it comes to worshiping God through music, the most important organ is the human heart.
Now, let's listen closely to the rest of today's Destined for Victory message. Can't we all just get along? There's worship, the quiet reverence of God, and some loud folk need to learn how to do that. They're good at praise, but they need to learn worship. Worship, you don't make a whole bunch of noise.
You take in the awesome presence of God. You worship His Majesty. You're in the presence of royalty. And as you sing songs of worship and pray prayers of worship, there's quiet reverence in all there. And so, if you're a saint who's always noisy, then teach yourself the other side of the coin.
How to sometimes just get into God's presence, and you know, because when His presence comes near, sometimes you don't know what to say. Words don't come easily and you just You just bask in the awesomeness of who He is. And then, some folk who are good at worship need to learn how to loosen up and praise. You're not loud by personality and temperament. I'm not suggesting that you have to become loud, but you ought to praise in some kind of way.
Read the Psalms, there's all kinds of ways you can praise God. Pick a few of them and praise Him. If you're not one that yells loudly and screams the praises of God or what have you, then find some way to offer your verbal praise to God. Lord, I bless you and praise you for who you are and what you've done. Don't get more excited at a game than you do about Jesus.
Just make up in your mind you won't do it. If you get excited about basketball or baseball or tennis or whatever it is, then get excited that much more about the one who saved your soul and changed your life. You know, because I have seen those kinds of hypocrites in church, not you, but people on your row. Um Who they say, well, it's just my personality. That's why I don't join in when the boisterous praise goes on.
It's just my personality. And then you go to a game with them. And they lose their natural minds. Said, no, you just taught yourself how, or your environment taught you, culture, whatever it was. Torture had to make a false distinction.
between your outside persona and your church persona. And I want to challenge you to learn how to marry him and be who you are in the presence of God. Because I tell you, when you think of the goodness of Jesus and all He's done for you. Even if you don't holler, you ought to cry out of one eye. Do something, wiggle a foot.
Do something. Let God know that you Appreciate who he is and what he's done. in your life. And we have to learn to avoid arrogance. Arrogance is killing the church of Jesus Christ.
Arrogance is preventing us from being what we could be before God and as a witness to the world. And we've got to make up in our minds that, yes, we stand our ground on essential Christian faith, but beyond that, we are free. To understand that not everyone is going to share our personal convictions. And you know what it does? It really creates beauty.
Among God's people. Because in our diversity, you have strengths balancing out weaknesses. You'd be lapsid unless there were some folks who could show you other dimensions. Who could expand your thinking? And help you understand that you live in too narrow a focus sometimes, and God wants to expand, enlarge your territory to use the Jabez language.
God wants to enlarge your territory. And so He'll hook you up with people who can help you see other dimensions of how to walk with God, how to serve Him, how to love Him. You ever met somebody who challenges you when the way they witness just challenges you, the way they serve just challenges you. The way they give just challenges you. On and on.
And so God uses difference for His glory if we'll allow Him to do it. And so we've got to deal with these kinds of things. The poverty versus wealth issue. A minister friend of mine, I heard him teach that very, very emphatically at a conference where both of us were speaking. And he said, all believers ought to live just with the bare necessities, and everything else needs to be distributed to help other people and given into ministry and all that, just bare necessities.
And he was very, very specific about the way we were supposed to all live. and the size of house you were supposed to live in. And the kind of car you're supposed to drive, and clothes shouldn't be expensive, and just on and on. And I said, My Lord, he got a different Bible than I have. I wanted to go up to him afterwards and say, What translation is that?
But of course I knew not to go because I knew it wasn't a translation issue. They were personal preferences and personal scruples, personal convictions. He has every right to them. But don't tell me how I'm supposed to live, what standard of living, where the word hasn't told me. Because I'm subject to the word, I'm not subject to your opinion.
And you hold it with all your faith. With all your might, hold that position. You believe Christians shouldn't endorse affluence and what have you, you hold that position. But I know some affluent folk who love God with all of their hearts. They are generous in distributing and being a blessing to others.
And as one who leads two ministries, a church ministry and a radio ministry, both of which need a lot of money to do what God's called them to do, I've learned to appreciate it when people have little and give generously and sacrificially, but also to appreciate when people have much and give generously and sacrificially. Because that much can help you pay some bills. I'm a witness. It can help you when you teach affluent people how to worship and be kingdom first in their living. Buddy, they can pay some bills in Jesus' name.
And I'm telling you, we've got to learn that. We had a couple that had a piece of property when we were first beginning to raise the funds for this facility God's blessed us with. A young couple, God had blessed them, and they had a prime piece of land and they were thinking, they were just assuming one day that they would just build a dream house on that prime piece of real estate. And they said, as they heard the challenge for the building fund and began to pray, Lord, what would you want us to do? They began to confer and they say, you know what, God is saying that we need to give that prime piece of real estate.
We need to sell it. and give the proceeds to the church so they can build that facility for God. We don't need a dream house or God will give us another one, whatever. We're going to give it to God. And when they sold that property and that check came in that office, I said, thank you, Jesus.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Given to the kingdom, so we can have a facility where we can throw out the lifeline and let people know Jesus saves and He changes lives. And somebody with wealth was able to say it means nothing if it's not advancing the kingdom, and so we want to be sacrificial.
Now, what churches have to learn to do and ministries have to learn to do is not treat people with this world's goods any more special. That's where the challenge comes in. Because you know, sometimes you're so busy looking at the bills that certain folk can pay with their tithe versus what other folk pay with their tithes, and you got to understand that's not God's way of looking at it. You appreciate the generosity of everybody. And that's my problem I have with some ministries that always set a particular amount that everybody needs to give.
I don't impugn their motive, but I couldn't have a $500 line. And if everybody gets in this one with 500, then we pray a blessing over you. I couldn't personally do it. I have some of my best friends raise money like that. I'm not being facetious.
That's absolutely true. And so I don't impugn their motive. I know they're men of God, but I couldn't do it. And the reason why I couldn't do it is because if you have somebody on a fixed income, a limited, limited amount of money, what is sacrificial for them may be far short of 500. But if they give a sacrificial, generous offering out of what they have, God sees it and it registers in heaven.
Yeah. Because there are other folk who, if you call in the $500 line, everybody in that one's gonna get a special blessing. For some people, 500 is nothing. Nothing. They'll blow that in an accidental day at the mall.
You know what I'm saying? You know, day where they just didn't even intend to get anything, just went there maybe to get a little something and saw a little sale and walk out with $500 worth of clothes. You know as well as I do, there are folks who could do that and not blink. And so if we set the amount. For the blessing at something that isn't sacrificial for them.
You're promising them a special blessing, assuming it's a sacrifice, and for them, it's not a sacrifice at all. For them, they'd have to give $50,000 for it to be a sacrifice. But if you set your arbitrary amount and then you got some widow, what if Jesus had called a $500 line? The widow with the mic couldn't have got in it. I'm just trying to help you see and think about some of the things that happen in the church world, again, without impugning the motives of people.
And we gotta learn. That God loves cheerful generosity out of a heart of worship. And what that looks like in one person's life may be vastly different than what it looks like in another, but both will be blessed. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory. Remember, any of our recent messages, including the one you heard today, are available on demand at our website, pastorpaul.net.
While you're there, be sure to check out our online store for some great resources to help you grow in your Christian faith, including books and video messages from Pastor Paul Shepard. It's found at pastorpaul.net. And if you haven't already downloaded our free mobile app, now's a great time to do that. Search Destined for Victory at the App Store and listen to these messages wherever you go. That's the Destined for Victory mobile app.
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Well, when you come to faith in Christ, you immediately gain access to peace, joy, hope, even during life's most difficult seasons. To learn more about the access to blessings you have in Christ, I hope you'll contact us today and request your copy of our latest booklet, Access Granted. That's Access Granted, a great resource based on Romans chapter 5, and our gift to you today for your generous donation to Destined for Victory. You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500.
or by visiting pastorpaul.net and making a safe and secure donation online. And you can mail your gift to Destin for Victory. Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. And as the church in the first century In the city of Rome was challenged, so is the church in the 21st century all over the world challenged because there are so many differences among God's people.
So many preferences among God's people. That we must learn not to use our preferences and our differences to create division. That's next time in our continuing message. Can't we all just get along? I hope you'll join us.
But until then, remember. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory. Yeah.
