 Music has a way of speaking to our souls in ways that words rarely do. Did you just quote yourself? Yeah. Not a good look to start off the video. This is a Christian channel! My bad. Take two. Music is the universal language of mankind. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Music teaches us and disciples us. Because of that, a lot of Christians have been asking what kind of music we should allow to speak into our lives. Is the answer as easy as casting out all music that doesn't have a Christian label on it? And uploading as much Chris Tomlin as we can to our MP3 player? Should we be listening to songs that don't mention the name of Jesus in their entire two minutes 42 second runtime? First, let's establish a foundation. What does the Bible say? Philippians 4-8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. This verse ought to help us discern and figure out what we should actually be listening to and taking in as Christians. Some people are so quick to say that everything that claims to be Christian music is good and everything else is trash. And while I'll make reference to the trash music later and I'll tear that apart, I think it's important that us as Christians hold ourselves to higher standards and we should hold Christian music to higher standards. At least in my mind there are two things that we should be thinking about, method and message. Some songs have a really solid message. They have great theology and yet they sound like garbage. The melody is just bad and the timing is bad. The production is bad. The method is off. Some songs sound great and yet their theology is absolute garbage. The message is off. So obviously nobody can make a perfect song. That's not what I'm asking for. Only God can write a perfect song. And I'm first to admit that my talents in terms of the musical persuasion aren't significant. At the same time that we need to move beyond a label in evaluating good art. Mentioning Jesus shouldn't give you a pass to make a bad song. Excellence should be what we're striving for in everything that we do and in what we decide to consume. Don't settle and consume half-baked songs that just throw in the name of Jesus to get plays on Christian radio. I think we should go above and beyond in trying to fill our minds with things that inspire creativity and worship. Not just the bare minimum. Okay so I said I would talk about the trash music and so here we go. Music from people like Doja Cat and Megan the Stallion are flooding platforms like TikTok and rotting the brains of the next generation. This might sound a little bit hyperbolic to you. I know if that's the right word. This is a big word for me. I don't know exactly what that means. But it's totally rotting the minds of kids everywhere. And we need it to stop. I'm not joking here. It's so true. I every time I hear their music I want to barf. Like that's not a joke. I want to barf. They're not the only ones perpetuating this lyrical trash but they're the ones that I thought of so you're getting the brunt of it. The biggest problem with music like theirs it is extremely sexually explicit. It's just nasty. It really is. It's so nasty in fact that I had almost pulled up some lyrics in order to tell you how nasty they were and not appropriate for my channel at all. No sorry. In all seriousness if you're consistently listening to music like this you need to know that it's changing your brain and that these lyrics are discipling you. Some people will say oh it doesn't affect me and that is not a valid excuse. My question is if it makes no difference what we consume whether it's you know highly sexually explicit or it's just nice you know worship music and very wholesome and all that. If it makes no difference then why were we told in the bible to pursue those things that were lovely and worthy of praise? We need to understand that music molds us. It teaches us to think about things in a certain way. If the music you listen to is pornographic your thoughts will be molded by that explicit content. You should know that it's not hopeless. If you've dabbled in this music or you've listened to it quite a bit until now and you didn't realize the dramatic impacts it's having on you thank god that there's still time to get out. And if you're still debating I would just ask you to look at the gospel see what Jesus did so that you could be free from sin. Why would you want to continue in the thing that Jesus died for you to be free from? He wants us to walk in freedom from music that celebrates sin. The best thing for you if you've been dabbling in this type of music or listen to it consistently is to take a total detox from this kind of over sexualized content. So we talked about Christian music and some blatantly sinful stuff but now let's talk about the gray area. The music that we would call secular because it doesn't explicitly name the name of Jesus and yet it isn't profane or sexually explicit in any way. One perspective that I've heard is that we should not listen to this kind of gray area music because music should be evangelistic in nature. I know a lot of people who hold this opinion and I really respect them. At the same time though I definitely have a different opinion. You guys know me on this channel I'm extremely evangelistic in the things that I do but I do think there's a difference between an evangelist talking online or in person versus an artist making art. Do they have the license to share the gospel within their art? Absolutely. But are they confined to only sharing the gospel truths as their main content of every piece of art they create? I don't think so. Think of a painter. Are they only confined to drawing pictures of the tomb, the empty tomb, or the crucifixion? I think of the verse where it says the heavens declare the glory of God so when an artist draws a tree or a mountain or a cloud they are showing the world how good and glorious God truly is. A carpenter isn't confined to simply making wooden crosses. No he can make a chair that can sit around a dining room table that can aid in the flourishment of communities for decades to come. A songwriter can write a song about connection and love that testifies the beauty of the love that God has created us to dwell in. Artists testify to what God has created and the world that we live in. There's so much more that I could say but before continuing on we should know what are we supposed to do with this gray area that we find ourselves in. My biggest encouragement to you is to have a gracious attitude towards the people that may have a different opinion than you. I have friends that only listen to explicitly Christian music and for me I listen to quite a bit of indie and acoustic music that isn't labeled Christian. Those friends could look down on me for the music that I consume or they could believe that I'm using the best discernment that I can to make sure that I'm you know living up to the commands that God has given us. Likewise I could look down on my friends for being closed off to the artistic beauty found in other types of music or I could just be gracious to them and allow them to follow their conscience. Ultimately we need to be sensitive to our own conscience and not go against our conscience no matter what anybody else says. And so for you if that means you're only listening to things on Christian radio and everything else is a no-go then everything else is a no-go for now. And alternatively maybe that means you can listen to music that's not explicitly Christian and that's okay for you. Don't get too comfortable though make sure you're using your discernment in the content that you're listening to. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below and subscribe if you're looking for more Christ-centered content because I put out new videos all the time. Thank you so much to everyone on Patreon it is because of your guys support that I can continue to make this content and help people follow Jesus daily. If you want to help support my ministry head to the link in my biopatriot.com slash daily underscore disciple. It would be a huge blessing to me and this ministry. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. God bless.