 of you have found yourself in a dilemma where you are listening to somebody who you know might not have a good doctor, who might be promoting something that you don't agree with, who you think that they don't embody what a Christian ought to embody. One of my favorite singers, or I should say my favorite singer, but when I, I mentioned this the other day, one of my favorite songs is a song by Marvin Sapp called My Testimony. Marvin Sapp though, I mean, I'm not going to say that he is a false teacher or heritage or anything like that. But at the same time, there's some things that are kind of questionable about him. Remember Marvin Sapp was the one who was, when we heard Jamal Bryant say that 85% of Jesus's life was out of order. That was at Marvin Sapp's church and he hadn't come out yet and said anything about it. And so you find yourself in a dilemma when you, when you find yourself listening to a song and then a song sounds good, the words are good, and that's a good thing. If it sounds good and the words are good, or at least the words aren't negative, right? The words aren't anti-bible. But what do you do when you know that the person that that's singing it or the group that's singing it, they've got some issues too. And so that's kind of the issue. Well, the biggest issue that we're starting to see now, more than anything else, is we're seeing more and more Christian artists, artists who are singing about Christ, supposed to be singing about the gospel, singing about this guy that we love, who are compromising on issues and things that they should not be compromising on, especially when it comes to things regarding the culture, especially when it comes to the LGBTQ community. Now, remember, these are people who their livelihood is based off of people liking them, buying their songs and albums. Do they, do they even still call them albums? I don't know, but buying their albums, buying their songs. And so when they want to get people liking them, they have a vested interest in cuddling up and cozying to the world. And just recently, I wasn't going to speak much, but since I'm going to cover this topic, I'm going to show a clip from Marvin Satt, who I just mentioned, being asked on Vlad TV about homosexuality. Does he think about, does he think about homosexuality or gays? Or I can remember how to have a question, his phrase, but listen to his answer. What is your thoughts on homosexuality and Christianity? I don't know if it's against the church. I just do know that there are some biblical things as a pertain to, everybody has their own particular theology. Now, I'm going to say that, you know, some people's theology has evolved as a, how come we just can't just come out and say, yeah, that's a sin. Yeah, the Bible says it's a sin. And I've seen people say, well, it doesn't matter what I think about it, what the Bible thinks about it. You know what's sad? Joel Osteen said, it's not what I say, but it's what the Bible says. And so it's sad when Joel Osteen has a more definitive answer than you. If Joel Osteen can be even now, he's not clear on sin, but if his answer is more clear on sin than yours, Pastor Satt, well, then we got a problem. Retains to homosexuality being in the church. And when you study the Bible, you would know to notice that that was a problem. If it was a problem, then say so, call it a sin. And don't do like everyone else does, or other people do well. Homosexuality, like Kirk Franklin did. It's like a lot of other sins. There's more sins than just homosexuality. There's lying and other things. Okay, fine. But that wasn't a question because there's no one out there that is saying, you know what, hey, is murder, is, what do you think about murder? You don't hear them asking, what do you think about murder? What do you think about lying? No, no, not even lying, which virtually everybody you walk across does. No one is, there's no debate as to whether those are sin. And so therefore no one asked that question. But this issue that is a cultural issue that puts Christians right in the crosshairs of the world, they're looking for you to cave in. They're looking for you to even, as a matter of fact, to put a bigger bull's eye on your back. Well, fine, go ahead and do that. Jesus says, blessed are you when they revile you for my namesake. And so if you say, yeah, it's a sin and whatever, God said so. So if God said so, then I say so. Instead of saying, well, there's things in the Bible, say what the Bible says. Or it was an issue in the church in days of old anyway, from a scriptural standpoint. I'm not going to say, nor will I ever put anybody in heaven or hell because of what they decide to do. Because that's a God decision. Well, then just say that God's decision, though, if you are one of those who are practicing sin, if you are engaged and practicing a lifestyle of sin, and in this case of sin, being homosexual rather than God is the one that's going to put you in hell. He's the one that's going to put you in heaven or hell. And he's given us how you get to hell or how you get to heaven. He's given us the blueprint, the roadmap. And so you are derelict in your duty if someone is asking anything round about that way and you don't offer them a direction to get there. Now, what he does is he wants to make sure. He wants to make sure that no one thinks just in case I wasn't soft on this, on my answer enough, I want to make sure that you understand my heart towards anybody that might buy my record, anybody that might buy my albums, anybody that might come to my concerts. If it's a commission reunion, I love commission back in the day, anyone that might come to hear me sing or hear me preach or teach. I don't know why you would, since you're not going to be even, you're not going to be silent on this, you're not going to be direct and honest on this teaching, which is easy. It's a softball. Just hit it, tee it up and bam, there you go. But just in case you didn't think I was soft enough on my answer, let me go ahead and let you know that I want to be gracious to anyone who has carpeted anything. This is kind of his way out. I stand on the scripture in Galatians 6 and 1. The Bible says something profound in Galatians 6 and 1. It says that if you find someone who is overtaken with a fault, those of you all who are spiritual are supposed to restore them in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest she fall to that same temptation. So he's saying we should just be gentle and meek and he's right. If a person is caught up in a sin, then we, those who are spiritual, we should restore him in that way. The problem that he's failing to mention is you can't restore someone who's caught in a sin if you don't address the sin, if you don't say, hey, this is a sin. And so as a matter of fact, this is why you can't sing. And now let's just, let's just go ahead and be honest. Whether it's the black community, the white community, the Hispanic community, in our churches, there is a large presence of homosexuals in the music department. In these choirs, there's a running joke in a lot of the black churches that the piano player or the organist is gay. And the same thing is happening in white churches as well, in Hispanic churches, because maybe it's because it has something to do with the arts and so forth. I don't know. But the issue is though, I don't care how good the music sound, we need to be clear on sin. If we're going to have Aunt Bertha singing and she can't carry a tune, but she's living godly and she's the only one in the choir that qualifies with an amen, Aunt Bertha is going to leave us in some hymns. That's what we're going to do, rather than compromising the saying to the audience that anything goes. Someone had gotten on me and was upset. As a matter of fact, not someone, a few some ones were upset. I had mentioned the story before where we had a young man who wanted to get up and to sing. He wasn't singing the choir and they caught him with another man and he was addressed. I approached him and the first time he denied it, didn't have proof. The second time though, hey, caught in the act. And he said, well, listen, I've been praying. The Lord has been dealing with me and I'm good now. I said, well, I'm glad you feel like he's good now. I mean, that you're good now. But this is why I went and put a costume on him. This is why I went charismatic. The Lord hadn't showed me that. The Lord hadn't told me that yet. And so no, we're not going to do that. What has to happen is there is a restoration process, but we're not going to make it as though that anybody, if we know about the sin, yet there are other folks that might be engaged in other sins as well. And if we find out about them, then the same thing holds true. But you, sir, the moment you get up and sing, everyone in the audience who has heard about is going to look at you and say, hey, that guy, that guy, and it's going to impugn one, the name of Christ, to the body, and then three yourself. And we're not going to have that. And I guess he wanted to fight. And I said, okay, I'll tell you what, I'm not going to fight you. I'm not going to fight you. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to do anything. You want to sing? Fine. Go inquire a lot and get ready. But before, before a notice plate, before a string on the guitar is strummed, before the piano player tunes the piano, we're going to have an announcement before the church. And we're going to say what's happening and what we ought to be dealing with in regards to you. Will he be gracefully bowed out? And the issue was not for him to be embarrassed and things like that. The issue was restoration, but also we're still at the same time wanting you to be restored. We want you to get to that point as well, but also to protect the name God is holy. And he says that we are to also be holy. Now, as much as we can help, we want to be holy. We want to present a holy body of praisers and ministers as well, whether they're deacons or elders or what have you, they should be the same way too. So it's not just for that particular person. And then come to find out that he was not serious about it at all. He ended up becoming a Muslim or joining the Muslims. They ended up putting him out. Some people take that serious. And then he decided that he wasn't sure if, if, if God was for him, he was, he was really more of a scam artist than anything else. He was just looking for a place to get attention. But we need to be serious about that. Now there are other people out there who we listen to, who can honestly, they can sing. They've got some, some good songs and songs like I like the way this song sounds. It might, it administers to me. It does something. One such person you've heard a lot about this particular person is this guy, Don Tabo. How great would it be when you hear that and you see the audience is, is praising obviously, and we should be under no illusion that everyone in the audience is saved, but at least the table is set to where someone could come and preach a sound, doctrinally, doctrinally sound message to these young folks, to these people, rather than someone coming back and just giving them something that is worldly or compromising, nothing that's convicted and so forth. Wouldn't it be wonderful? But we see these people that they're at least there. The problem is with the Don Tabo is he is about what at least he's shown. So I don't know him personally. I don't know what's happening with him lately, even after being removed from the group Maverick City. But prior to that, he seemed to be as worldly as they come. I'm excited to see the performers tonight. So yeah. Who are you looking forward to seeing perform? It's Lil Nas X performance tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing that. That's going to be a cool problem. Yeah. How do you say that? How do you, it's almost like you saying who are you looking to hear from tonight? Well, I'm looking here from Satan. I'd like to hear what the devil has to say tonight. I want to see how Antichrist is going to perform. We're talking about Lil Nas X who is trying to put his thumb in the finger of Christians, his blasphemous songs and so forth in the statements. And so you want to see him perform. You want to see him do something that is so blasphemous, so degrading to men and women and to just human beings, period. That's who you want to see. You're looking forward to seeing him. There's a problem. And I want to get to this issue of what do we do when we have someone who they are compromising their, their heart is not good, but man, they can sing. Matter of fact, I want to know from you guys, do you think, do you do, what do you do when you come across an artist who sings a song that you like, but you don't agree with their lifestyle? You don't agree with what they're, what they stand for? Do you immediately cast that song away? Is it, is it okay to listen to them? Is listening to them, is that the same as supporting them? That, that's a question. And I'll be honest with you, is the Bible is cut and dry and who would like it to be? Matter of fact, some folks wouldn't like it to be because, yeah, I don't want the Bible telling me not to defend if you listen to this person because I like that song. I like this person. I like, I like, I like them. We would say it even more so in, if you listen to R&B songs, the question came up about how come everybody got on R. Kelly, but no one, not as many people got on Michael Jackson, right? I mean, the same allegations as a matter of fact, Michael's was probably worse. We're talking about younger kids. If this alleged activity is true, the man's got a Ferris wheel, he's got bubbles of monkey and so forth, and he's spending night with kids. And so, yeah, Thriller was a good album. Thriller, Off the Wall was a good album. Yeah, he can dance. And yeah, we remember the time, but what about Mike? And so we sometimes pick and choose who our favorite center is. We pick and choose who our least favorite center is because if you came with this album, I believe I can fly it too, but R. Kelly, sorry, you're just not my favorite. So for that reason, I can't write a lot of folks through their albums where I stopped listening to them at least for a time being. Now they're back to listen to me even though he's in jail. And so we do that sometimes. And so the question is, are we, if we listen to them, are we giving approval to them? Because now the question is going to be if we're saying we're not going to listen to someone based on their background, and someone did this, went back and looked up some of the beliefs of the people that wrote some of these hymns that we listen to. Y'all do realize that a lot of these hymn writers were not godly. You can use, we know this today, don't we? You can use biblical language, but not be very biblical yourself. You can sound godly, but may be the very opposite of godly. Right? Yeah, I know Teresa, he was proven innocent in court, but you know how we do. In the court of public opinion, Mike had a ferris wheel. Somebody said, Mike had a ferris wheel and Mike was afraid of heights. What's going on here? I'm just throwing it out there. But the point is, even when it comes to our artists that we listen to, that we hear from, what do we do? Should I not listen to, let's say Lauren Dago has a song. I like the song, but Lauren Dago is just too wishy-washy when it comes to the LGBTQ community. Now, I'm going somewhere because some folks are going to say, well, this is the line that I'm going to divide. This is why I'm going to stop that because they are not, I'm sorry, I'm not listening to someone who is, is okay or hadn't made a decision when it comes to the LGBTQ community, whereas the Bible has. We'll see how, how, because we want to be consistent. We want to be as consistent as possible. So what do you do if a song that is biblically sound or not against the Bible with you and causes you to praise God? You hear the song and the song has got the song, you don't even, you don't even put your hands up. The song has got your hands up. The song has got your crying. When I was in prison, let me tell you guys a quick story. When I was in prison, one, we didn't have access to all of the songs that everyone outside of prison did. They had these, we could buy these little MP3 players and we'd go to the computer and we could pay a few dollars, whatever, download these songs and we couldn't get all the songs. As a matter of fact, we didn't have all the information on all of these people. I didn't know how egregious or how anything elevation was or Bethel was while I was in prison. Now, were there some songs that I'd downloaded and had on my MP3 that I would listen to, because if you're in prison and you've got some, some, some godly sounding music in your ear, you need that. I can promise you need that. And the song resonates. The song may have you crying. The song might have you, yeah, MP, yeah, Tyree, MP3. That's how we got there. You know, that's all we got in prison. MP3 players. And so the song just, just has you just thinking about the Lord, praising the Lord, may even cause you to cry. That song, as we say, minister to you, then you get out of prison and everyone's saying, you can't listen to that song anymore. You can't do it. You can't listen to that song anymore. Now, the song wasn't a doctrinally bad song. It wasn't like the song was selling you do something or believe something opposite. Now, even me, when I was in prison and I heard the songs and I'm not listening to that song, there was a song by, he's from, a matter of fact, from hometown, Donald Lawrence. The song was called The Breath of God or something like that. When God breathes, I'm not sure how it goes, but he, but what he was saying was the word, the four letters of Tetragrammantana, the words that form Yahweh, that those words in the Hebrew mean God breathes. And so every time you say the word, you're actually saying or you're hearing the breath of God. No, that's, that's not true. When I heard that, I heard the song. You know what it was? The song sounded. It was a nice sound to the song. Like, wow, this person singing well. But then I got to that part. Like, that is so wrong and so off. And I, they only give you a little bit to hear a little bit the sample before you buy it. And the part that I heard sounded pretty good. And when I bought it, I heard the rest of it. And so I could do one, two things, keep it or delete it. And I rest with it. Oh, God, I had to go ahead and delete it. I just, because every time it came on, it, it, it vexed me. It bothered me. Now there's some songs, though, where I like the song and then the person just goes to, in tongues in the middle of the song. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. I don't want, I don't want to think about this issue of between tongues and so forth. I don't want to hear about that while I'm listening to the song. And the song is wonderful song. If he just take the tongues out of the song, which is a song called Holy by, uh, dynamic clerk. Oh, I love that song. There's nothing ungodly about the song. There's nothing unbiblical about the song. It's just, uh, I've heard the song so many times. I can even repeat exactly how he spoke in tongues. It's in this one particular part. It's like, Oh, stop it, Donny. But the song is, the song resonates. The song is perfect. Except for that. What should we do? What should I do? What if, what if you listen to DC talk, everything was fine. Then one of their members, what's the guy's name? Kevin max comes out and says that he doesn't even believe in God anymore. Now the other members say they do, but this guy, and you're listening to one of their old songs, maybe the old songs might have resonated with you, done something with you. And now dog on it. Can I not listen to DC talk anymore? Because one of their members is gone. So here, now before we continue, let me ask you guys a question. Is it possible? And I would like to see in the chance. I'd like to hear you hear you guys's opinion on this. Is it possible that you can be ministered to by an unbeliever? Is it possible that a non-Christian can minister to you? And when I say minister, I'm talking about minister the gospel. I'm talking about minister the word of God. I'm talking about speak to you spiritually. Is it possible that a non-believer can do something to you spiritually? And so Tyra says, yes, I'm just going to populate some of these guys. No, yes. I don't know if they're populating fast enough. Neland, yep. Yes, sir. Yes. I believe so. Yes. Oh, no, that wasn't you that said yes. You said no now. Joseph says in your flesh you can Tyrone. Yes. Devonte. Yes. Well, let's go to a passage. That unfortunately tells us. I don't want to say unfortunately. I don't even want to say unfortunately. That tells us that yes, you can be ministered to by someone who it didn't even save. I covered this before. Where is this thing? Here it is. I covered this passage before in speaking about something else. And I said, you know what? That passage also goes here. Remember Jesus is saying, not everyone says me Lord, Lord. And what does he say when he repeats or says what these folks will say to him? He says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In other words, preaching your name. And in your name do not cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles. And so what does Jesus say? I never knew you. You who practice law. You sinners, you ungodly person. I never had a relationship with you, even though you did all those wonderful things. Even though you minister to perform miracles before the people, even still. Paul makes a statement. Paul makes a statement that I want to bring up that this is how powerful the gospel is. The message of God is that it even trumps the rotten people. It's so powerful. It's so amazing. It's so awesome. That's what Paul says. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. And so this is how powerful it is. Look what Paul says. Let's go to Philippians one. He says, some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife. Would you say that comes from that that also describes some of these artists, some of these musicians? Yeah, they sing the gospel. Supposedly they do so from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel, the former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition. So we've got some singers that sing for selfish motives. But look what he says. Rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What does he say? What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice. What did he say in some versions? Nevertheless, at least Christ be preached. So even when, because someone will say, hey, this heretic that you call out this false teacher, a lot of folks have gotten have been ministered to. Now, I don't know how you can tell if someone has gotten something from it. You don't know what they've gotten. You don't think if they're lying or not. But let's just say a lot of folks have learned or have grown or found Christ in this false teacher's ministry. Okay. So that means person not a false teacher. Doesn't mean the person not a heretic. Okay. He says, at least Christ be preached. There's power in his name, not in their name. So at least at the various, this is how this an awesome God is. He'll, he'll bless people in spite of that person, not through that person, but he'll bless them in spite of how many of you all came to or grew up in or had a large portion of your Christian life listening to some known wolves, some known heretics. I, I did. And, but it wasn't them. It wasn't the teaching of when I was listening to Jesse the planets or when I was listening to Miles Monroe or when I was listening to Benny Hinn. It wasn't them that did it for me. It was God. God is the one that, that, that, that bought and paid my salvation, not them. And so, so now if I take that same thought, that same attitude towards Christian artists, so-called artists, because what happens is we got to worry about now, am I, am I saying that you ought to go out and support anybody that is doing God knows what just because they have a good song in the song. No, I'm not saying that either. What I am saying is you might have to determine for yourself, there's going to come a point in time where you're going to have to say, you know what, I'm not listening there because I've done that. There are some people I'm just not going to listen to. I wouldn't care if they had a song and the whole world decided, you know what, yeah, let's sing, let's sing with them. There's, there are some people I'm just not going to listen to. Sorry. I never would have made it. You know, that's, that's one of the prison, prison anthems, uh, Flipping Nurse Betty. That's one of the, because it resonates with us. Never would have made it. Never would have made it. But then he doesn't know if he's not willing to say homosexuality is the scene. Don't go on at Marvin. He's killing me over here, buddy. You are, you are literally killing us because we can't, what are you doing to us? But then what do you hear? Well, what happens? Have you all also had this happen to you? You hear a song, the song just sounds good. Good sounding song. And then you come to realize that this song ain't even, that, that part of the song, take it out, take it out. There's a song they sing and I think you all have heard this song before. Uh, I, you know, I'm new. I'm new to the, to the free world. So I'm hearing this song, reckless love and all my Lord, when I hear it, it sounds good when other folks sing it. And then I hear the lyrics before I spoke a word, you were singing over me. You have been so, so good to me before I took a breath. You breathed your life in me. You have been so, so kind to me. Okay, cool. But then they go to the chorus. Oh, the overwhelming, never ending, reckless love of God. If you know what the word reckless means, it's not reckless. God didn't have reckless love. God has forethought. God thinks about what he's, it's not reckless. It's not, it's not haphazard without any thought, without any meaning behind it. No, no. And so now when I hear the, it's like, oh, I wouldn't care. Listen, if they dug up Whitney and put her on the mic and had her singing, I wouldn't get that. That song just irks my, just like nails on a chalkboard. Some of the young folks are like, what's the chalkboard? It's one of those little green things back in the day when you should put white chalk and just write stuff on the board. Not a white board. But yeah, exactly. Exactly. Hey, Renee, it's intentional love, not reckless, but that song just does something to me. It just, it moves me. It just, it just, it it moves me, not in a good way. It moves me. Stop it. Why? Because we can actually put some thought into the songs that we sing, the words that we sing. Now, and maybe, maybe, maybe he just didn't know. Now I'm not going to say, Hey, you know what, listen, bad guy, you got to go because of that song. But it's just that song. I've listened to other songs that the guy has that the guy is saying. Now, some of the other songs are also, Hey, listen, you might want to get your doctor, you know, tightened up. Problem is we got a lot of people that are singing who go to churches and their pastors are not holding them to have sound doctrine probably because their pastors don't have good doctrine. Their pastors don't have good doctrine. So they would know good doctrine if it slapped them. And so the people that sing there at their churches or singing their choirs and so forth, they don't think about that. If it sounds good, it moves folks because a lot of times here's a, here's a, here's a dirty trick or dirty secret, I should say, in a lot of churches. You know, they pay a lot of money to the choir members, to the praise and worship group, to the piano player, to the organist, the guitar player, the drummer, to the singers. They pay a lot of money because they want the music to sound good. Why do you want, why do you want the music to sound good? Not be good, but just sound good. The reason why you want the music to sound good is because I can get up and say, whatever the heck I want to say, you just in a good mood now. Everybody's moving and rocking and they enjoyed it. They, the preacher wants you to set the table. And I get it because have you ever been somewhere in the, this is behind us, I'm going to be behind us. Y'all forget me, been somewhere where the choir or the praise and worship team did not sound well. It's like, uh, uh, uh, tell them all to pastor, make the entire choir repent. And then when the preacher gets up, it's like, okay, now you got to recover from what you just heard. And so preachers don't want that. So they'll, they're willing to pay out, and listen, if you are, they have traveling praise and worship teams too. So that if your piano player, your whatever band members are with their outfit week, they'll have someone come in. So the quality of the sound doesn't go down and they get paid a pretty penny if you're at a certain church, small church, churches really can't do it. But that's what happens. And so because they want the music to sound good. If the music sounds good, we have an atmosphere that sounds good. And guess what? I can say anything. You're not going to, you're not going to check my, my doctors. Matter of fact, you probably didn't bring a Bible. You probably had your Bible app on your phone. And so turning pages in the big deal. Matter of fact, you probably open it up. You're looking on the screen to hear, to see what's, what's being said. And so you're not getting anything in context because I'm not going to show on the screen the passage before or after, you're going to take my word. The reason why you're going to take my word is because the choir got down. The choir got down and everybody loved it. And so now you're feeling good. And so when you leave, you'll say, man, church was awesome. What did the pastor preach about? I don't know, but the church was awesome today. We had a good time in church. Ooh, or how we say in the, in the black church, ooh, child, didn't we have good church today? We do that. We do that, right? Now, and it's not just the fault of them. It's the fault of us because we are not discretionary shoppers when it comes to the Word of God and what we actually allow to go into our ear, what we consume. And so therein lies a problem. And so we've got, and so we don't have a problem because the songs are so good. We don't have a problem cozying up to the world. If we, if we get the world because there's some worldly singers who sound wonderful, who can come in and like, this person can play the piano, can play the guitar, all those different things, they sound so good. They must be anointed or, or the Lord is working on them. We ain't got to put them out less because if we, if we put the gay piano player out, well, how's it going to hear the gospel? But if we leave the gay piano player in playing, he's going to think the gospel applies to anybody who wants to stay in their sin. Well, I'm going to go with the latter. I'm going to go with the one that doesn't compromise the Word of God. And if the gay piano player wants to be the gay person in the pews learning to be convicted, learning the Word of God, and gets convicted that way, and then has repented of that. And then after that, then wants to praise God, amen. Then we're going to put the cart before the horse. Let's get him, let's get him for playing first and then get him saved while he's playing. Especially if you're paying him, then guess what he's going to want to do? Pretend. Pretend. Because the same motivation that he has is the same motivation that some of these worldly artists have or gospel artists or Christian artists have when cozying up to the world. And again, no bigger example do we see than when we see the LGBT, the LGBTQ community, the alphabet community being embraced. So much so, y'all heard about this, this, uh, this young lady. Sim, similar, similar, similar, similar, similar, whatever, I can't, whatever her name is. Uh, LGBTQ Christian artist. As a matter of fact, I think it was last year, her album went number one in terms of downloads on itunes of all people that she beat out was who was Lauren Dago, who they might be friends, but really disheartening to see that there is an LGBTQ openly LGBTQ Christian artist who's being supported by Christians. In music charts, you might have seen an album titled Preachers Kid, which seems to fit right in with all the other music in the genre, but you'll also see something surprising, a parental advisory for explicit lyrics. And what you'll hear is a message about faith told through the voice of a queer artist named similar. I spoke with the singer, they hope more LGBTQ representation in the genre will change hearts and minds. Grace Semler Baldridge is quickly rising to the top at the Christian music scene. Now, I, okay, I might, there's no nice way to say what I'm getting ready to say, but that just sounds horrible. I'm sorry. That, that is terrible. That's not even a good singer. It'd be different if she was a good singer and was gay. She's not even a good singer. That is, wow, I can't sing, but I can promise you. Well, if I came out as LGBTQ affirming and then saying I'd probably rise to the charts too, but that was really horrible. And what it is, is I'm pretty sure that maybe a whole lot of LGBTQ people also bought and supported because let's let her rise in that to show that we're taking over that because they do support each other. I'll give them that. I will give them that, but that was pretty bad. That was, that was just, I'm sorry, young lady. The fact is that her father is, he is a priest in the Episcopal church, which we understand some things now. We, we get that. But you know what it is though? It's not just folks that are affirming, let's say the LGBTQ community. No, there are other people that are affirming other socially conscious things that differ sharply with Christian views. For example, there's one particular artist who is this guy. He is abortions are us. Mr. Bishop William Murphy. So you say something that tickles the ears because the Bible says the time will come when they will not endure a sound doctrine. Well, that also means they will not endure sound, sound singing as well. You say something like he says, this is the season for my blessing, my breakthrough and so forth, whatever the name of the song is that resonates. And so he's got a following he didn't have. He has no, no foundation in the world. And of course, when he's out stomping for people or candidates who are affirming the LGBTQ community or affirming abortion rights and so forth, well, then we've got a problem during the thank you given super chat. And so we have that, that's a problem. We don't, for some reason, we don't, we don't have that big of a problem with them. We should, we should have a big problem with people like him. People like the Lecraze of the world, the Aaron, the Lauren Dago's of the world. That is, that is a problem. We, we know, we should know, hopefully we know that to be, to be friends with the world is to be enemies with God. And there should be a place where people can look to and say, you know what, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, that ain't, that ain't right. That ain't, that ain't right. And it should be that the folks that are supporting them, Christians, should hit them in the pocket book. I'm not buying your stuff anymore. Hmm. Maybe that's the answer there. Maybe it should be, though, that I'm not going out and buying any more of your stuff. J. L. Chris channel says, is Lecraze still doing, I don't know. I honestly have no idea. I'd never heard, I've never heard, at least I know of a Lecraze song. I'm not, I'm not really big into Christian rap. I don't know if he's still rapping or not. I don't, I have no idea. I do know that he's still supporting social causes that tend to go, that not tend to, but do go against the Bible. I do know that. So I couldn't, I couldn't tell you, but it ought to be, it ought to be that we have a desire and a care. Now are there going to be some folks again that we listen to like, man, that song resonates. You want to be discerning. You don't want to make sure that this person has a billion dollars in their pockets for, for singing Blastman stuff. Speaking of someone who is just utterly, I shouldn't say utterly, I shouldn't say that, but who seems to be pretty socially conscious, socially aware, and doesn't want to offend certain segments of the community because he got a lot of them in, in his periphery. A lot of those folks that are in his, in his group that he's around, maybe even in the choir. You all know who I'm talking about. So you go to the view when you hang out with them who they are not friends of the body of Christ, not friends. By the way, when I was going to a Oakley Bible Fellowship and, and Kurt Franklin was going there at the time. Kurt Frank is really short, y'all. Listen, I'm not a giant, but Kurt Franklin, if you're short and you stand beside Kurt Franklin, you feel tall. He is. He's an itty-bitty fellow. Nothing wrong with that. His legs are long enough to reach the ground. So he's good, but the point is, and I'll never forget though, he was never really affirmed there at the church. Uh, he was never really put up. He didn't, you know, he didn't do the choir, anything like that or what have you, but no, he ain't five, five. He's five, five. He ain't five, five. I can tell you that. I'm, so I don't want to get on that, but he's not five, five. But to go and hang out with certain people, you don't have to do that. You don't have to do that, Kurt. And it sends the bad, a bad message. Now I don't, I don't, I've got some, I've got some stuff already of his that I've, that I've had, but I don't go out and support him. I don't, I don't know. Has he, has he done a new album lately? Most of the stuff I listen to is old stuff. Now I'll hear something that the kids might be listening to. I like that song and they'll send it to me. Now, if I know it's of a certain artist, I tend not to, although I'm not going to lie to you. There are some, do I have a couple of elevation songs? I do. I do. There's a couple of songs that I really, really, really, it's what you said. I'm sorry. Something that I really, shireen, I'm not going to put it on the screen, but there are some songs that is a wonderful song. That is a wonderful song. Now, I don't know the hearts of all the people at elevation and elevation worship. I don't, I don't. Are there some Christians at elevation? I'm pretty sure there are. Is the head man there exemplifying good sound, godly doctrine? No, he's not. But I do know the power of the gospel is still powerful enough to overcome him in the hearts and minds of others. And you'll see, that's why you're always seeing and hearing people that are leaving elevation because the Lord just worked in them and they, I got, I got to go. And so there are some songs like, wow, that is, there are some songs, the songs that I have, most of them are the songs that before I got out, I listed, they were just wonderful songs. We sang them in prison. And then Amy Grant, yeah. And I wouldn't cover her. I'm not going to cover. I will mention she is a mess. She is, and I think she's from Indiana also. Don't go on it. I think one of the grants, is it Amy? There's another grant also. I can remember the other grant, but I think she's from Indiana. I don't know what's going on with her. She's decided that the Lord doesn't matter. And sometimes what happens is, if a family member comes out, then that kind of puts it, puts it over the top for you. You said Kirk's live album at Lakewood. Listen, I ain't gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. That album was nice. That Kirk at Smiling Joe's Church, that really was, that really was a pretty good album. He used to want to minister to people. This, this is what got Kirk Franklin kind of some shine. He would want to minister to people that are herty, people that are going through the downtrodden, people that are looked down upon, spit on and so forth, which was good. But you've got to also call them to grow. You got to call them to, or at least show them that it's possible to live for the Lord and be blessed. Now, this will be rich, but be blessed. And Kirk Franklin just isn't doing it right now. Now, I am intentionally turning the volume down because I want you to look at this video and you tell me if you, could you tell me that they are singing anything closely or remotely related to Jesus? That just looked like just a show, didn't it? And the rapper, I believe that particular rapper is a secular artist. I'm not sure y'all, maybe y'all might know who that rapper is in the background, but there was nothing gospel about that. And so you, Kirk finds himself hanging out. Listen, it's one thing if the artist is ministering to and bring, you said little baby. I don't know who little baby is, but okay, that sounds like a, that's not like a worldly rapper. But if it appeals to them, that's not on you. But if you're going to them to be like them, then we have a problem. Then we have a huge problem. Now, there are times though, where I don't care who the person is, who say, matter of fact, I want to tell, I want to play something for you guys. You guys tell me, does this song just listen to the song? Does this song minister to you? Maybe it's just me. I like that song. You turn great. Now, I like the song. I like the song. I don't know much about the guy Brandon, Brandon Lake, other than I think someone said that he is at, or he was or used to be a worship leader at Bethel. Let's be honest. Most people at Bethel don't know what their doctrine is and so do you. But the song, and someone said it looks like a concert. It actually was a concert. It was, it was a concert. And so I don't have a problem with someone at a Christian concert making a concert look like a concert. I really don't. If, if, if you go to a Christian concert and the lights moving, that's fine. Now I have a problem with the church service looking like the concert. There, there's an issue. I have a problem with that. But maybe that song didn't move you, but tell me this song didn't move you. Does that song resonate with you? Does that, you might even want to put your hand up? I don't know. That song, I love that song. I love that song. Is there anyone in the chat that also loved that song as well? Then I'll tell you who was actually singing that song. The person that was singing that song was Stephen Furti. Now, does that change my view of the song? No. Even knowing that Stephen Furti was singing it, amen. Amen. Now I wish you get the rest of your doctrine straight, but you tell me the truth. I can amen the truth all day long, all day long, because even when the sinful man is going to be caused to praise God, amen to everything that you're going to have to say to God. You're going to bow down and give him praise. You're going to bow down and confess his name as Lord. Now you'll do it on your way to hell, but still amen to that. He is Lord. He's Lord if a Muslim says it. He's Lord if an atheist says it. He's Lord if a Buddhist says it, because he is Lord. I can amen that truth. Now, am I going to support you and you and whatever else you got going on? No. No. But when I hear that, I won't just say, okay, fine. Everything that I heard from what you just said is just trash because it's not. Again, when you hear some of these songs that are from some of the older folks that wrote these hymns and you come to find out that maybe this guy had slaves or he was okay with slaves. See, we think that the guy that wrote Amazing Grace, that everyone else had the same sort of come to Jesus moment and they didn't. They just didn't. Some of the songs that we sing from back in the day, some of those guys had some. Listen, go go. How many of you all are Mahia Jackson fans? Go look at what she believed. Yeah. And so we've got some, we've got some, there are some songs that Carlton Pearson sang. I love those old gospel songs, but Carlton Pearson's on his way to hell. One of my favorite songs, I'm going to play it in a little bit, is I'm sorry. I was looking at something. I'm going to play one of my favorite songs and just look, I want to put up a couple of evil evil. I want to put a couple verses. I was reading something that said evil. So you all forgive me. I wasn't saying evil verses, but what we can't do though is judge the listeners also the folks that listen to a song. A person's praise preference doesn't make a song good or bad either. Right. There are some, first of all, Christian rap is a thing. Christian metal is a thing. Right. If it's godly, there are different styles and so forth. I'll never forget. I heard someone. I won't say who it was. I've said before someone who was condemning a certain genre because all they did or in a lot of the songs, they repeat words. And he said, well, well, he said beware of songs where they're always repeating the same words over and over and over and over again. And in that, I said, wait a second, because the Bible tells us that these angels are going to be before the throne of God and they're going to be repeating some words over and over again. They'll be saying, holy, holy, holy Proverbs and leave me alone. Okay, I'll leave her alone. I'll let you guys, I won't tell you, you guys go look up my hell you see what her her doctrinal views were. I promise you, once you find out, you'll come away and my hay is a heritage. Hey, if she didn't repent, she was a heritage. I'll let you guys look that up though. But did she have some songs? Precious Lord, take my hand. Yeah. So we don't want to take someone's praise style, their worship style or the folks that listen to them as though it's a negative. As a matter of fact, 2 Samuel, chapter 6, David does some things that's a bit peculiar. We have this song, I'll become even more undignified than this. Well, guess where you got that from? The song was from piggybacking off what David did or said in 2 Samuel. So let's go to it. Chapter 6 verse 16, as the Ark of the Lord came to the city of David, Michael, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord. And she despised him in her heart. And as they brought in the Ark of the Lord and set it in the place inside the tent, David had pitched for it and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, cake of bread, portion of meat. Let's go down to verse 20. And David returned to bless his household. But Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants. Now, real quick, he wasn't naked. He just came out of his outer covering, his outer garment. How the king of Israel honored himself, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servant, his female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. And David said to Michael, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father. David just shot a shot at it. He chose me above your daddy to be an appointed above all his house to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord. And I will celebrate before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this. And I will be a base in your eyes. He says, I don't care what you think, I'm about to get down for the Lord. I'm going to sing and dance and praise because it ain't to you is to the Lord who chose me. You know, you remember God, the one that chose me over your daddy, the one who's dead now? How about that? Anyway, the point is we don't want to start, we don't want to judge worship styles either. Okay, because that's we do that sometimes to look at how they do that, look how they do that. Look at they know in and of itself, and I've done it too, in and of itself, lights aren't a sin, guys. If your favorite preacher, some of you guys like MacArthur, it's not it's never going to happen. But let's say if MacArthur, if there were lights moving around and doesn't lighting in the sanctuary when the songs are being played there, and they're not singing hymns and so forth, and they don't have a choir and choir robes, but they're doing a contemporary praise and worship group with drums and everything else. A lot of folks tune will change in terms of how they look at other people's worship service, right? Again, a lot of times it's a preference. And so let's not call, we're not going to call a Christian. And when I say a bad Christian, I don't mean that they are bad Christians. First of all, there's all of us are bad to begin with. But the point is this, when I hear a good song out of a person who I think is a bad Christian or resembling or representing Christianity in a bad way, what do I do? What should I should I continue listening to? Now, we don't want to be a stumbling block. Although, although the truth be told is we actually are a stumbling block to the world and Jesus Christ himself. Matter of fact, what does Paul say? He says that we preach Christ, Christ crucified to Jews, a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness. So we don't mind being a stumbling block. What we don't want to do is we don't want to be a stumbling block to Christians. We don't want to be the ones that cause the Christians. And so if you know, now this is what I don't do. This is me. If I've got a song that's playing and the person that's listening, I mean, they're singing it might be a bit questionable. I might not. I've heard some things. If I have not deleted that song, I'm not going to play it for other people. So I don't want other folks going and say, Hey, I like because now I am the kind of person where I think I'm discerning enough to where if I hear the song, then I might, you know, now, I'm deleting that song. Don't like that song. Don't like that song. Now what I'll try to do is I, me personally, I like to find and cover songs. So if a song that's sung by a person who I don't like, I don't like the theology and so forth, I'll try to find that cover song. Some of the person who sings that song, the song you heard the other little girl singing, such an awesome God. Well, that song was sung by some other people before, but I have her version as my version of that song. There's a lot of folks that sing these little cover songs and you can go to YouTube or YouTube music, what have you. Now, when we say that we shouldn't, we shouldn't support these people. Here's the unfortunate truth, guys. And it's going to, it's unfortunate. I, by the way, Ms. Gallo, I will. I'm going to do a video on that in the near future. As a matter of fact, in the next week or two. But here's the unfortunate truth. If you're worried about supporting them, don't, don't because on YouTube, we're, what we do goes to the enemy. It just is what it is. It's his platform. When you turn on the radio waves, when you turn on the television station, a lot of those dollars are going to secular people, people who have no thought for the Lord. It is what it is. When folks say, I don't. Yeah, I do. I do know that, Margie. As a matter of fact, I did a video where I was showing them singing that and him seeing as well. But sometimes you just can't help. Sometimes you're going to, you're going to, because we're all on a platform where we are literally watching me or listening to me or someone else or you're tuned to YouTube. YouTube is not for us. We're taking advantage of the platform, just like you would on Facebook or any other social media platform or your, some of you guys don't, and I won't get into some of the, some of the printers, some of these houses that bring us some of the books, how ungodly they are as well. Some of the folks that are also behind printing your bibles. Some of these printing houses aren't as godly as you think, but what do they do? They printed the Bible. You bought the Bible because you were, you were, you were just getting a copy of God's word. And so that's, that's the way the world's going to be. Unfortunately, more and more folks that we interact with are not going to be Christian. Your light company is not a Christian like, I'm pretty sure your electric company is not Christian. I'm, I'm going to go out on a limb and say your, your light company, your electric company, your gas provider, your internet provider is probably not a Christian internet provider. I'm pretty sure I'm not a prophet, but I'm prophesying now. I'm not a prophet, but I'm prophesying now. But what you want to do is you want to be careful. Jesus says, woe to the world because it is a stumbling block for it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes. And so this is where you've got to be discerned. You've got to, you have to be careful. If you're going to listen to a song by an artist who you just believe is not a good Christian, you want to make sure that you doing so does not cost someone else to stumble. Meaning sometimes you've got to be discerning about this and just think many steps forward. If my child or my friend or my buddy or someone who's weaker in the faith hears this song, they hear me listening to it. They think that I'm pretty sharp when it comes to the word. And then what? They want that same song. And now they're listening to other song that this artist sings. And now they're listening to the preacher of that artist. So now they're listening to Stephen Fertick or they're listening to Bill Johnson Bethel. So you have, it's incumbent upon you to be careful about what someone can take from you and use. Be mindful of those things. Like Yoda told, like Yoda told Luke, you gotta be mindful of this not mindful of forth, but be mindful of the enemy. You have to. Because we should be concerned about the hearts, the minds, the souls of the people around us. Not just us, yet blesses me. But if that song blessing me is taken away, can I still be blessed somewhere else through another song? I sure can. I sure can. And so you want to be, you want to be careful. Now there's one particular song who I don't know the, I don't know the man's heart. I know the heart when he made the song. I know the heart of this man when he wrote the song. I don't know what he's done in his life. I don't know if he went to heaven or hell. I don't know what the deal was with this guy, but the song touched me and anybody that sings this song touches me. Anybody that's saying, oh, it is one of, if not my most favorite song. Guy by the name of Horatio Spafford wrote this song. He was here in America. He's from England and his family was moving. And so he chartered them a ferry or whatever, some little boat to move their stuff from one part of England to another part. And as they cross the ocean, the sea, whatever it was they were in, that ship hit another ship and that ship sank. He gets a telegraph that says, I forget how many, how many souls were lost. It says all were lost, save so many souls. His daughters died on that ship. So when he finally got, got ready to leave the country and he boarded the boat, he penned these words together. He asked the person, he asked the ship's captain, when we get to the spot where that ship sank, let me know. The ship's captain came and got him when he got to that point and said, this is where that other ship crashed and sank. And so Horatio goes to the deck and he's crying. And this is where he pennies the words to this song. It's one of my most favorite songs. And even the person who I'm not necessarily sure about his doctrine as well, he's singing this song. And the song that Horatio Spafford sang remembering that his family perished here was it as well. Marvin almost had me in tears. When I hear that song, I think about the pain that he went through as he's writing this song. Now, for me, the song became my favorite or one of my favorite in prison. It's well. I don't care what's going on. It is well, I can, I can be crying. It is well with my soul. I don't care what the storm is. It is well with my soul. If you, if you can't be moved by this song, if you can, I'm questioning, I'm questioning your salvation. This song moves me. This song is, by the way, it is as doctrinally sound as any song you're ever going to hear. I don't have a problem with one iota, with one word, with one letter, with one curve of one of the letters in this song. This song just moves me. And if you don't like this song, I'm just, listen, I'm wondering, I'm wondering if you are saved or not. If it's not well with you, I know it might be some bills. It might be due. You spent a little bit much for Christmas. You ate a little bit more. Your health might not be in the shape that you want it to be. All the relationships that you have with different people, your family and friends, might not be where it is, where you want it to be. But even still, it is well with my soul.