 Welcome everybody and thank you for joining us for Unfiltered. Pastor David, welcome as always. Thank you, John. Pastor, my question is centered on the importance of worship. There are so many styles and different ways of worship. Why does our church worship the way we worship? And again, worship is in a lot of variations. Why do we do it before the God's Word and the significance of worship? You know, worship is taken from a Greek word, prosconel, and it speaks about actually an adoration, a posture of adoration being on the ground, if you will. It's been used to, the word worship has been defined as kissing the face of God. And so those of us who have been saved have the inclination within us by the prompting of the Holy Spirit to want to have that personal loving relationship with God. And so we give him our honor and our love and adoration, our praise and our thanksgiving in the variety of ways that it's expressed. We do that in a variety of forms. Our life, for example, is to be in an attitude of worship that we understand that, that the air that we breathe and the life that we have, our gifts to us from God that we're grateful for. So we can have an attitude of worship a long time before we enter into a church service, a public gathering of the believers in Christ and all of that. So worship takes different forms. It's normally the expression, it should be the expression, of a grateful sinner who's been pardoned and given the grace of God. That's where the origin would be, our love for Christ and what he has done for us in our gratitude. But it can take different forms. And for us, we begin our church services with an attitude of worship through song. Because from the old to the new, you see that you sing unto the Lord a new song. And you sing the song of remembrance, or you sing songs of praise and gratitude, etc. The Psalms is the greatest songbook in the Bible, obviously. So we sing to the Lord with all of our heart, because he has given us reason to sing. And so we do so to the accompaniment of music. There are some denominations, when in particular the states that you are not to sing with the accompaniment of any musical instruments, so they sing acapella. We don't see that, because when Paul tells us we're to sing hymns and songs of praise to God, the Horde hymn refers to the fact that the song is accompanied with a musical instrument. And so you read the Psalms and they'll instruct you. This is to be sung with strings or whatever. And you know, Psalm 150 is a very famous song. You let everything that has breath within them, let them praise the Lord, and it shares about a variety of different ways you do with the timbrels and the harp, etc., and all of that. So we sing unto the Lord this new song that God has given to us, the song of the redeemed. And we do that at the beginning, because our hearts are already given to God, that which is his, which he deserves. And so we open our hearts to him, and we prepare our hearts as we worship him to receive from him. So we're first given to him, then we receive from him that which he would have us to know as we leave and walk about this world. And it should be a walk of gratitude and thankfulness. And in Calvary Chapel, singing songs unto the Lord, these new songs are especially precious to me, because I didn't know songs of deliverance prior to getting saved and after getting saved and being delivered from all that I've been delivered from, including the torment that awaits those who reject him. How am I to live, and what more can I do other than to worship him? So we do that in preparation to receive the word from him. Amen. And something I like to talk about maybe in another segment is how that's changed, and it's become a production, and it's no longer about worshiping the Lord, but it's become about, you know, the production of the whole worship. Can you talk about it for just a moment here, because I think that's a good thing to talk about. Yeah, it's become a production. I've been saying stuff like this for a long time. When we first got saved, we had in the Jesus movement, we had people who were singing songs that God gave to them. Sometimes they'd be reading a Psalm, they'd set the Psalm to music, and then they'd bring it to church, and then they'd sing it before the congregation. And we were able to learn scripture through what we called scripture songs. And so that was pure worship to the Lord. That was inspired by the Spirit, and it wasn't something to be marketed. It was something that was enjoyed. And ultimately what happened is Pastor Chuck Smith allowed the production of, at that time, records. And Mike McIntosh would go with records in his trunk, and he would go up to go to bookstores, and he'd say, you don't want to carry these. And at first people didn't want to carry these things, because they weren't filled with harps and warbly songs, and they were upbeat songs. And at first they didn't want that. And eventually realized that this is what the youth is enjoying, this is how the youth is worshiping God. Unfortunately, what happened is a commercial interest of some producers got involved, and some secular organizations that are not looking to the glory of God, but are looking for the bottom line, began to have music that they owned, and were producing, and became more commercial. And then you didn't have to be saved to be singing these songs. And then what eventually did happen after that is a world crept even further into the church. And here you have now the Dove Awards. I've never understood what a number one Christian song is. I've never understood that. You know, what is a number one song? Well, it's sold the most records. What does that mean? I mean, how can you spiritually justify that garbage? I've always been offended by these awards given to Christians who became celebrities instead of servants. And so that crept into the church. And that's why I prefer in our fellowship, I prefer people who love Jesus singing. And even though they may never get a record contract and probably shouldn't, they have a heart for Christ. And it's the love that they have for Jesus when they're singing to Him that draws me into singing along with them praises to God. But that is another more intricate subject that maybe we can delve into in the future. Well, Pastor, thank you so much for sharing with us. And I do want to invite you guys to our Wednesday evening service as we're starting Esther tomorrow. We're going to do chapters one and two. So, I mean, we were just talking about this. How long ago did you? It's been 30 years since I taught Esther, so. Yeah. I mean, I think you're sharing a little bit with me off camera. And I want to invite you guys to come out and join us. It's a great opportunity to come and invite your friends to get in worship and get into God's Word and the fellowship afterwards. So, we do look forward of you guys coming out and joining us. That's Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. in the chapel. And Pastor again, thank you so much for joining us as you always do. Thank you guys for tuning in and God bless you.