 Okay, keep your place there in Ezekiel or not Ezekiel in Colossians chapter 3 and turn to Ezekiel, turn to Ezekiel chapter 28. So in Colossians chapter 3, I want to focus in on verse number 16, I'll just read it, I'll reread it for you where the Bible says it's our verse of the week where the Bible says let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Ephesians 5-9, I'll just read for you, says speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So what we're going to talk about this morning is music and the importance of music and the dangers of music in the world and why, I'll explain to you why we stick to the old hymns here at Verity Baptist Church and why you won't see a rock concert on this stage and why we will not conform to the music of the world. Satan, just a little bit of an introduction, we talked about this on the 31st, but Satan is a musical being, the Bible says and in Ezekiel chapter 28, if you look down at verse number 13, the Bible says this, it says, But thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardis, the topaz and the diamond and the barrel and the onyx and the jasper and the sapphire and the emerald and the carbuncle and gold. And the workmanship of thy tabrets and thy pipes was prepared in thee all the day that thou wast created. So the Bible says, you know, people take this verse and you know, Satan was the angel of music and heaven. You know, the Bible doesn't say that, but the Bible does give us an idea that Satan was, you know, a musical being. He was a musical angel of some type. He had these parts to him. And I believe that we can see that in the world today, that, you know, Satan is clearly in charge of a lot of, you know, these artists that are creating music for us today, is definitely not coming from the Lord. That's for sure. Okay. So I just want to give you, you know, a few points today on, you know, the importance of this and you say, oh, it's music and this is a sermon on music and is that big of a deal? I want to show you how, you know, it is a big deal and it does affect you. Even as a Christian, it can affect you greatly. Music is designed to change you. And it can change you in a good way or it can change you in a bad way. Okay. So if I get that point across to you today, then I will have done my job. So the first thing I want to bring up today is that music continues to speak to us even when we are not listening. If you look down at Ephesians 519 or, yeah, look at Ephesians 519. I just read it to you. But the Bible says speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making a melody in your heart to the Lord. The Bible says that, you know, we speak to ourselves this way. It doesn't say that people are speaking to us. You listen to music and you continue hearing it. And you know this is true. Right? You continue hearing music in your brain. You know, there's been studies on brain capacity. You say, you know, how much does it affect my brain? Well, your brain, according to studies that have been done, your brain has almost unlimited capacity for memory, almost unlimited. People have tried to measure it. You know, some measurements that I've, you know, that I've found that people have done studies on say that it's like 2.5 petabytes of memory, which is a crazy amount of memory. It's basically, you could record if you just took video and how much video that would store, you could record 300 years of video before your brain actually started to run out of space. So who's the best designer that's ever been? Right? I mean, music is easy for your brain to remember. And you all know that's true as well. You know, that's why children's learning activities are, you know, many times put to music. Right? A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Forget that now. No, I'm serious. Forget it. You can't. You can't forget it. You will never, as long as you live, forget the alphabet song. Isn't that amazing? But that should be a little bit of a warning on what we let into our minds, considering that we will remember these songs, you know, for the rest of our lives. They discovered this in the 60s and 70s when they came up with jingles to advertise to people. They came up with jingles to advertise to people that would make, that you would just have this jingle running in your head and it would affect your actual actions. If you came up with a good jingle, you could literally increase sales of a certain product. Not because the product was good, but because they stuck this musical tune in your head and it changed how you felt about something. Isn't that amazing? I mean, this is a science. People literally make money on this. So we need to be careful, you know, what we let into our brain. Let me read you a quote. Psychologists and neurologists who study the effects of music on the brain have found that music with strong emotional connection to the listener is difficult to forget. It was this discovery that led marketers to license pop songs for advertising instead of commissioning original jingles. It turns out that some pop songs contain what they call earworms. I almost said earthworms. But earworms, it's an actual term that advertisers use. Pleasant, melodic, easy to remember hooks that have the attributes of a typical jingle that you can't forget. Earworms, known by their German name as whatever some German word, are those tiny 15 to 30 second pieces of music that you can't get out of your head no matter how hard you try. Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar. That's an earworm. You will never forget that as long as you live. Now, that's seemingly harmless to get you to buy a candy bar. But what I'm trying to get you to understand is that certain musical things will stick with you for the rest of your life. And music literally changes the way that you think. It changes you. That's scary. That's scary. A couple of years ago, we quit listening to worldly music in my family several years ago. We got saved and we started getting things right in our lives. And music was one of those things that went out the door. And a couple of years ago, I drove by a billboard for a country music concert. And I looked up at the billboard and it had three artists on the billboard who were going to be performing in Sacramento that weekend or whatever. And I only recognized one of them. And I told my wife, I said, I was like, that's great. I only recognized one of those guys. Because it shows me that I've been out of this long enough to where I'm starting, that culture is starting to get purged out of my life. But guess what? You will never forget the songs. Never. I will go to a restaurant and hear music. And I will never forget those songs. I can't. I want to, but I can't. And that's how careful you need to guard what you listen to because it's forever. We actually choose to not go to certain restaurants and not go to certain places that have this type of music. Because I don't want to hear it myself personally, but more importantly, I don't want that hook getting hooked into my kids who have never heard it. Because I have to live with this for the rest of my life, that I've heard those songs before, but my kids don't. I don't have to get those hooks in their mind, those hooks that they will never forget from these songs. So look, we define where we go many places in my family because of this reason. It's something that's scary. It's something that you can't unremember. And it's something that it has a hook in you and it will grab a hold in you. And more importantly, it will change the way you feel about things. And it will literally change your actions in your life. So we need to be careful. It's not just harmless. Number two this morning, I want to tell you that music triggers an emotional response in you. It triggers an emotional response in you. Studies prove this as well. Examples, you know, hard rock, heavy metal, these types of music, they literally make you angry. They literally make you anxious and give you anxiety and make you more aggressive. It's proven. Why do you think a fighter, before he's about to go into a fight, has earbuds in? He's not listening to Mozart. I guarantee it. He's listening to music that will get him to feel more aggressive. People listen to this type of music to work out because it gets them more aggressive. So they work harder on what they're doing physically. It changes the way that they feel. It changes their emotions. And it changes their actions. It changes the way you feel. Studies have found this, hip hop and rap, which is a big deal here in California. Studies have found that men become more aggressive towards women after listening to hip hop and rap. I mean, is that shocking? Is it shocking? You listen to music that just talks about violence and how women are nothing but to be objectified and treated like a bunch of whores. And nothing's more important than money and treating women like that. And then it actually changes the way people feel about women. I mean, that shouldn't shock us. But that's exactly what's happened. Why is a feminized society, by the way? We have all these feminists running this country and pushing these agendas today. Why are feminists OK with this? Yet they are. It's crazy. But in the same way, turn your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 16. 1 Samuel chapter 16. Music can have an effect on how you feel towards things and how you treat people. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 16. But on the other hand, good music, spiritual music, can actually have a positive influence on you. And we'll see an example of this in the Bible. 1 Samuel chapter 16, look down at verse number 17. And you see here Saul, Saul has had the anointing of God taken off of him. And God's done with Saul because he was King Saul, because he was disobedient. And in verse number 17, Saul is just having a hard time here. In verse number 17, the Bible says, and Saul said unto his servants, provide me now a man that can play well and bring him to me. They answered one of the servants and said, behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that is cunning and playing, and a mighty, valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord is with him. Wherefore Saul sent his messengers unto Jesse and said, send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread and a bottle of wine and a kid and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul and stood before him, and he loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse saying, let David I pray thee, stand before me, for he hath found favor in my sight. And it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took in harp and played with his hand, so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. So here you see that David's, you know, playing of calming spiritual music to Saul, it actually calmed him. It actually changed his demeanor. It helped Saul. It was a very positive thing to Saul. David, the writer of the vast majority of the book of Psalms was very musical. Doesn't that, I mean Psalms are songs. They're, we're supposed to speak to ourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs written by David. So music, what I'm really trying to get you to understand is that music will change you. Music will change you and they could change you in a negative way or it can change you in a positive way. The choice is yours. Let me read you another study. Between 90 and 90% of mental activity takes place outside of our conscious awareness. This is called subconscious priming and it has been shown to dramatically influence human behavior. Subconscious activity heavily impacts day-to-day behaviors from the emotion someone feels to their satisfaction with their life. It can make you depressed. Music could literally make you depressed. They've done studies where subjects were given words such as rude and brash and interruptions and they were more likely to interrupt researchers when they were given these types of words to study and make words out of. But when subjects were given words such as nice, respectful, courteous, nice words and they were made to make sentences out of these words, it found that they were more respectful 10 minutes after the experiment was over. Look, these studies have solidified the theory that words affect how we think and act. So if you listen to this rap and hip-hop music that treats women this way and glorifies fornication and glorifies violence and glorifies the love of money, this is what you will become. You will start to think this way. I mean, it's not rocket surgery. If you listen and flood your mind with this, I mean 90 to 95% of the activity of your brain is not your conscious thought. So you're just planting all these seeds in your mind that are gonna pop up and affect how you act. You know, a lot of people say, okay, and this is how I grew up. You know, I never really grew up with hip-hop music and the rap music and all this gangster stuff. I grew up with country music. That's what I grew up with. And country music, in my opinion, is as bad, possibly worse, than anything else that's out there. Because it claims to have some goodness in it is the part that really gets me. But country music is just, it's tying fornication and drinking and divorce. It's tying it with this idea of patriotism in America and God and it's wrapping it all together. It's terrible. You know, do you, I mean, do you want to be divorced? Is that something that we want? I mean, so why would you listen to a bunch of people singing about, you know, being a drunk and being divorced or being divorced because they're a drunk? I mean, why would we listen to that? You know, we actually, you know, we need to redefine manhood in this country actually, is what needs to happen. You know, we've got this country, this cowboy definition in this country of how a man is supposed to be this hard drinking, womanizing brawler in this country. That's what defines a man. You know, if you're a man, you can hold your liquor. You know, and that's what these country songs are about. This is the songs that I listen to, you know, my whole entire childhood is country music. It's terrible. Turn to Proverbs chapter 20. You know, what the Bible says about being a man is the exact opposite of what all of these songs say that you should be. Look at Proverbs chapter 20. Proverbs chapter 20 in verse number one. Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging. And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Proverbs chapter 26 in verse nine. As a thorn go up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. Look, alcohol doesn't make you a man. It turns you into an idiot. I mean, that's what the Bible says. You ever been around somebody who's drinking? You could take the smartest person in the room and have them drink a bunch of alcohol and they turn into an idiot. I mean, why is this glorified? It turns you into a fool. Proverbs chapter 23 says, be not among wine-vibbers. And say you're not, not only are you not supposed to drink yourself, but you're not even supposed to be around people who do. And first of all, who would even want to be around people who do? I mean, there is nothing more irritating than being around a bunch of people that are drinking. There is nothing, I mean, as far as things that are irritating, it's gotta be on the top of the list. Because you're just around a bunch of people that are acting like idiots. Like, why, I mean, kids are like, why would people even do it? Good question. Because it's glorified, that's why. Because it's glorified in our culture. It says if you drink, you're a man. If you drink, you know that, you're cool. If you drink, women will like you. No, if you drink, you will become an idiot. You will talk like an idiot. And not only will you talk like an idiot, but for some reason you just get all arrogant and you think you know everything. So you have some idiot who knows nothing and he thinks he knows everything. What could be worse? Look, everything that the world, I mean, aside from music, everything that the world is telling you is basically a lie. And if you don't read the Bible and you don't know what the Bible says and you don't listen to Bible preaching, you will believe it. It's crazy. Look, it says the drunkard in the glutton shall come to poverty, just drive to 180 and see the people living in the dirt. They're living in the dirt because they're drunks. Because they're drug addicts. That's how they got in the dirt. Because they came to poverty. I mean, they don't even have their senses with them enough to be able to get the help the government would freely give them. But the Bible's true once again. You know, here's what's interesting about getting older. A lot of people, somebody said to me even just last week, man, I wish I was 20 again. I don't. I'll take the wisdom personally. You know, I actually really like where I'm at right now in my life. I'm 42 years old and I'm really enjoying it. Because here's one thing about getting older, especially into your 40s and hopefully my 50s are even better. But here's a nice thing about getting older. You start to see some results of people's philosophies in life. You know the people that told you, hey, you shouldn't be homeschooling your kids because they're gonna be anti-social and they won't know how to talk to people. Oh, you shouldn't be doing it this way because of this and oh, you don't wanna go to that party. You know, you're missing out on all this fun and all this kind of stuff. You know, you start to see the results and I always say to myself, when people say those things to me, I always say to myself, self, because I don't say it out loud because I'm too nice. But I always wanna tell those people, we should mark today and compare notes in 20 years. But guess what? Now it's 20 years later and I'm starting to see their results and I'm starting to see the results of the godly path. And it's sad for them, but it's kinda cool to actually have that, you know, to have that comparison. You can see the actual results of what the Bible says. So, you know, when they're divorced and their kids are, you know, a trainwreck and they're a drunk and now their kids are drunks, you kinda get to see the proof of what the Bible says. And so, I mean, it's a benefit of getting older. You look, I don't wanna see anybody's family fall apart but it's just a proof that what God says down to the very last word, we better listen. Or there will be consequences, especially if you're saved, folks. Especially if you're saved. I've seen plenty of saved people, you know, lose their kids and have horrible things happen to their families and even themselves. Being saved doesn't guarantee that you're not gonna fall into something and get chastised by God in this life. There's nothing you could ever do where God's gonna send you to hell but you could ruin this life on this earth and plenty of people do it. We meet him all the time out there. We meet him all the time. My favorite is the guy that's been married multiple times. I just had this one happen a couple months ago too and wants to give me advice on marriage. I'm just like, what the fuck? I'm just like, you know, you're on your third wife or whatever, living with your current girlfriend. You're gonna tell me about, you know, my marriage? I mean, are you serious, man? I mean, is this a joke? But I didn't say that. I bit my tongue to the point it was probably bleeding. But all right, what are we talking about here? All right, turn to Romans chapter seven. It's just amazing, they just, they never, they'll never, if you ever wonder yourself, just let me just end this thought on this one point. If you ever wonder yourself, oh, they'll see. They'll see when my kids grow up that we're doing it the right way. No, they won't. So just get that thought out of your head. You just do what the Bible says. You just follow through on what the Bible says you should do with yourself and raising your family and you just forget about what the world tells you. They're not gonna get it. Until they get saved and understand what the Bible says. Because guess what? They can't understand what this says. We talked about Romans eight on Thursday night. Can you imagine? I mean, there's no way you could read that if you're not saved. You'd just be like, what in the world? I don't even know, done with that book. That's what, that's what will happen. Somebody who's not saved, who's told you that they've read the Bible cover to cover the King James Bible, is lying to your face. Cause it will make no sense to them. Whatsoever. All right, what? Romans seven. Romans seven. All right, Romans seven, verse number 12. What for the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good? Was then that which is good made death unto me, God forbid, but sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become what? Exceedingly sinful. The law you're saved and the law is there so sin pops out at you. So sin is like whoa. When you're in the Bible, that's what the law is for. We are not saved by the law, but the law is there to show us how to, drive us to salvation and then once we're saved, it's there to show us sin, see? And all this worldly music does is just make sin blend into us. The worldly music is doing the opposite of what the Bible will do. It's there to play down sin. It's just like the TV stuff. It's there to desensitize you to sin. All these different kinds of sins and not only does it play it down, it actually glorifies it. It glorifies it. Look at the rap music and all the music videos of all kinds. It's glorifying sin. It's glorifying drunkenness and fornication. All these things, when the reality is if you get into these things, you're gonna end up in poverty. You're gonna end up dying an early death. You're gonna end up with all kinds of diseases. That's the truth of it. You're not gonna see that in the song or hear that in the song. It's glorifying sin instead of what the Bible will do which is pointed out to you and warn you about it. It's the exact opposite. Showing once again that what the world teaches is not just a little bit different from what we teach here. It's exactly the opposite. It's the opposite. It's a lie. It's a lie. Look, folks, and if you listen to it, it's literally changing you. It's literally changing your mind. You're being influenced by this, by the world. Look, if you stay in this church, this church has been here for about two months, but here's what you're gonna see. If you stay in this church for like two years or longer, I would say, if you stay, I mean, if you have that kind of staying power and you stay in a Bible preaching church for that long, you are gonna see the world changing. You're gonna see it in just that span. I mean, every single time I look into one of these sermons, it amazes me how fast it's changing. But you see, the people that are out there, your relatives, your friends, or ex-friends, or whatever, you are gonna see them changing with the world. If you're in a Bible preaching church like this, and you're gonna notice it, but here's what's funny. They're not gonna know what's happening. They're just gonna be going along with that status quo as that status quo keeps going down that hill. And they're not gonna know what's going on. It's gonna be amazing to you. If you stay with it, and you grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you grow in the word of God, and you learn your Bible, you're gonna see it changing, you're gonna see people changing with it, and they're not gonna know what's going on. But you're gonna see it, plain as day. It's gonna be exceedingly obvious to you. Turn to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. I touched on this on Thursday night, but I try not to go too deep into it. Romans chapter eight. Look at verse number five. You say, this all sounds pretty bad. All this, all these things are saying, it's not as bad as you think, it's worse. Look at Romans chapter eight. And look down at verse number five. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. Turn to Proverbs four. You say, what does that mean? Here's what that means. As this gets into your mind, this worldly music and all this playing down and glorifying of sin, it's not only going to change how you feel towards sin, but it's gonna turn you against the spiritual things of God. You will have no interest in songs and hymns and spiritual songs if you are wrapped up in rock and roll music and all this other stuff. You will have no interest in it. It will rob your spirit of that. It'll rob your heart of that. Because your heart will be in one place. Look at Proverbs chapter four. And the Bible warns about this, about keeping your heart. Proverbs chapter four and verse 23. The Bible says, keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life. Now here's what's interesting. You will literally stop caring about spiritual things. Here's what's interesting. You don't have to turn there, but if you look at Colossians three and verse number eight, the chapter that we read where verse 16 says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Verse number eight says this, but now you also put off these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Turn to Matthew 15. I wanna show you how what's in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth. Another reason that we need to watch, you know, where we put our heart. Matthew 15. Matthew 15 and verse number 18. Now Jesus here, he is getting chastised by the Pharisees because his disciples didn't wash their hands before they ate. And look what Jesus says. But those things which proceedeth out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. Jesus said, explain that it's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but it's what comes out of your mouth that defiles you. For out of the heart, whoa, whoa, I thought we were talking about the mouth. What are you talking about? For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. See, in verse 19 you see that all those things are in the heart. And then he talks in verse 18 about the things that were coming out of their mouth. Because what's in your heart is gonna come out of your mouth. That's right. Folks, you know, this is why I don't worry about too much about what people think. Because eventually I'm gonna know what you think by what comes out of your mouth. Luke 16, I'll just read if you, in verse number 45. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. So be careful what you let into your heart because it will affect your language and what comes out of your mouth. And now let me just go off on a rant about people's language today. And you think it doesn't have anything to do with what they're listening to? You're living in a dream world, my friend. People's language today is appalling. The way people talk in normal circumstances at work, especially in their professional workplaces is disgusting. And it was not always this way. You wanna talk about a slippery slope. Turn to 2 Peter chapter two. You say, does that affect me? Yeah, it affects you. 2 Peter chapter two. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemn them with an overthrow, making them an example onto those that after should live ungodly. Oh, by the way, Sodom and Gomorrah, maybe we should pay attention to what happened there because it was an example for us today. So all this filth and sodomy that's going on today, that was an example for us today when God destroyed that in Sodom and Gomorrah. You think that he did it? Just, no, he was making a point. And it was written in the Bible as an example for us. And look what it says in verse seven, and delivered just a lot. Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. Look, listening to filthy conversation will vex you. It will vex you. And listening to filthy lyrics and songs is worse than filthy conversation because it will stick with you. This is a huge problem in America today. I mean, frankly, I'm fed up to hear with it with how people talk now. I can't stand it. I mean, you'll hear people, grown men that talk like they're in a rap video. I'm like, what in the world is wrong with you? You know, I mean, Ephesians four in verse 29, I'll just read for you. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians five, four, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient. Don't get me started on jokes, but rather giving of thanks. Look, us as Christians here, I don't care where you came from. I don't care, you know, your past life. All that's under the blood, if you're saved. God doesn't even remember your sin. But you need to watch your mouth. You need to watch what you say. This world today, I wanna say to some of these people that speak this way on a normal everyday basis. I wanna say to some of these people, you know, do you talk that way around your wife and your kids? Some of them probably do. But I bet you a lot of them don't. Then what do we talk about with dress standards when we talk about situational ethics? If it's wrong one place, the Bible does not condone situational ethics. If it's wrong in one place, it's wrong everywhere. I mean, these people, they talk this way. Yeah, you go home to your two year old and you're gonna speak that way too. You know, they probably don't, but if you do shame on you and you will reap, you will reap that whirlwind. One day. Like I said, it's the benefit of being my age because I've seen it. I've seen the kids grow up and all of a sudden, where are they learning these words? Well, guess what? That's how a dad talks all the time. And where are they learning to act that way? Well, they've been talking that way for years. I mean, how people don't see this is unbelievable. But like I said, you stay in a church like this long enough, you're gonna see these things, you're gonna see these train wrecks coming years before they happen, and you're gonna be like, how does no one else see this? But they don't, and they won't. Look, there used to be a time in this country, sorry, I'm gonna, there used to be a time in this country that I can remember where men would not curse around women. Does anybody remember that? Where a bunch of men could be out on a construction site or wherever else and they would be talking a certain way and if a woman came or if a woman was in the room, they would not speak that way no longer. As a matter of fact, I was trying to pull some historical context out of this and figure this, look into this a little bit and here's a funny thing. I Googled, I Googled swearing in front of women. I Googled, because I wanted to see if somebody had a graph on this, I love graphs, you know? And I wanted to see if somebody had trended this when it went wrong or whatever. And guess what I got? There is a huge movement of women out there who are encouraging men to swear in front of them. It's a movement. I mean, I'm just like, what in the world? I mean, the top two results was an article written, the first one was this, an article written skirting the issue. You can swear around me, gentlemen, I can take it. Some feminist encouraging men to curse around them. And then the second result was men need to stop assuming women can't handle profanity by so-and-so feminist, whatever. It's crazy. But feminists are leading the charge on a movement to try to get men to talk filthy around women. Look, feminism is so against women, this is not a sermon on feminism, but it is the thing that is gonna destroy women in this country faster than anything else. It's crazy. Please, men, have no respect for us. I mean, can you imagine? The entire chapter of James three is basically on watching your tongue. It's being kind of watching, is the damage that your tongue can do? Let me just read James three, six for you. Turn there, go ahead and turn there. You think that, oh, it's just words. No, your tongue can damage people. It can damage you. It will damage your character. It will damage the way people view you. It will damage you. Look at James three, six. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileeth the whole body. What did Jesus say? It's not what goes into your mouth that defileeth the man, but what come out. That's what Jesus said, just what James three, six says. And seteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. That's some pretty strong language on what your tongue can do. You know, it sounds to me, you know, like your words matter, folks. And what's in your heart, what you let into your heart, it will eventually come out of your mouth. So be careful. You'll guard your heart. Now here's the good news though. Your words will, because it's such a disaster today, your words and the words, especially you young men when you go into the workforce, the words that you use and more importantly the words that you don't use will set you apart almost immediately. I just started a new job and it was about two weeks into that new job where some guy said to me, he's like, I noticed you don't swear. And I said, I noticed that you do a lot. And now he swears a little bit less around me and you kind of establish, you get that foothold and you establish yourself properly. You establish your character upfront and it will be easier for you going forward. It'll set you apart. People will notice. People will notice and it will set you apart. One way or the other. You know what? And I'm happy to be set apart in that way. Whether it gets me far or not, I can care less. That's what the Bible says, that's what I'm gonna do. Period. Win or lose. Okay, music. So we see that music is powerful. Music will change you. We need to focus solidly on songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing with grace in your hearts. You see? You see how that one verse, it talks about how you won't even, at the very beginning of the verse, it said, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. If your heart is into all this other garbage, the word of God will not dwell in you. You'll lose interest in it. And then the last part of the verse, singing with grace in your hearts. Because if you sing these hymns in this church and you don't like it, you got a problem in your heart. But if you sing these hymns and it stirs your soul, that's when you know that your heart is getting right. And your heart is right. Look, I mean, these hymns are here to teach. It says teaching and admonishing one another. These hymns teach us doctrine as we sing the hymns. A lady yesterday, just to end it here. Look, now let me tell this story. I was going out to dinner with my wife last night. I just, this is perfect that this happened last night. Going out to dinner with my wife and we never come downtown to go out to dinner, ever. Because downtown Fresno at night is, it's worse than Manila at night. So we went downtown Fresno and we heard that there was a good Mexican restaurant down here, so we drove down Fulton Street here. And by the time I got to this corner, like three blocks away, I could hear my car going, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I mean, I'm like, whoa, something's going on. And we drive by Cornerstone Church here on the corner and they got a DJ stand out there and they got the loudest music, I mean, they got this bass going and this pop music going and there's hundreds of people out there having a dance party. I'm serious. I, Garrett recorded it, I said, delete the video. I don't want him showing it to anybody. I would have thought it was a nightclub. And I rolled down the window, because I'm like, I got to hear, maybe it's some Christian rap or something. No, it was just whatever song, because I recognized the song, I'm embarrassed to say. It was worldly dance music, talking about fornicating and being a whore. Hey, let's have our kids come here and listen to this garbage. Please take church off your building. I know that they don't have the right doctor, but I'm embarrassed. How God doesn't destroy this whole thing right now is crazy. It's a church. They're all dressed like, it's a church. You would have thought it was a nightclub, I'm serious. It was so loud. And just the same worldly music, just glorifying sin to a bunch of kids. Hey, adults, if you want to wreck your own life, have at it. But please leave the kids alone. I mean, for crying out loud, I mean, I couldn't believe it. Some lady out soul-winning, let me just leave you here. Some lady out soul-winning says to Brother Frank and I yesterday, she's saved, she's saved all the day long. We asked her, you know, rarely do you find saved people. We found one. She says to us, she says to us, Frank had told me on the way soul-winning, by the way, that he had battled him and the Republic stuck in his mind. And I'm like, you know what, man? That's in the hymn book. Praise God. And then we meet this lady and she says to us, after we talked to him, like, man, come to church. And she's like, hey, she goes, be safe out there. The first thing that popped into my head was, as Christ died to make men holy, let us die to make men free. That's what was stuck in my head. Amen. Get these songs stuck in your head and get these other songs out of your head because they're gonna change you and they're gonna change your attitude towards the word of God. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Bible. Lord, we thank you for the hymn book, Lord. We thank you for the Psalms. We thank you for King David and that you used him to write these wonderful things down for us and that men could make hymns out of these, Lord. And we just thank you for these wonderful, wonderful spiritual songs that you've given us. Lord, please help us see clearly the dangers that are out in this world that we are all walking around in every single day. Help them pop out to us, Lord. Help us be just buried in your word to when we see these things, we see how dangerous it is, Lord. Lord, I ask that you bless the rest of this day and church this evening. Bless all the people, Lord, who came here to travel and bless their travels back home. We pray all this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.