Music Monday - Songs I'm Embarrassed to Like

I'm not sure there's any valid reason to hate Gavin DeGraw's music. I'm not sure why I would even be embarrassed to admit I like his stuff. His music is catchy and has all the elements that would make it 'likeable.' 

Yet for some reason I could never fully buy into him as an artist. He feels like the musical equivalent to Dane Cook.  Popular, talented to an extent, but there's just something that I don't trust.

And yet I can't deny I love this song:

It's a pretty self-centered love song. It's asking one's potential love interest to fully commit and meet certain demands. Which is ok, just weird to think about and not something I can ever imagine being in a position to do. At the same time I get it, one is in a relationship with another person who doesn't seem totally 'in' and you want them to step up and buy in. 

I have to admit it though, it's a fun song. It's a great tune with catchy lyrics that declare his love for this unnamed woman.  And it was also featured in an episode of Scrubs which has settled into my top three favorite sitcoms ever (seasons 8 and 9 notwithstanding). So while it is my firm belief that pop music has totally over-saturated the airwaves with songs about love, this one at least comes at it with an unique angle.

Sermon Snippets

Thanksgiving is most often associated with food. Ever since that first meal enjoyed by the Pilgrims and Native Americans, our country has paired giving thanks with sumptuous meals.

There's another pairing that involves food which we as Christians can remember this Thanksgiving week.
Galatians 5:22-23a says,

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

If we depend on the Spirit on a daily basis (Gal. 2:20, 5:5), He will produce spiritual fruit in our lives that taste good to our Lord.

It's easy to focus on each of those individual traits. It's also easy to focus on that list, then look in the mirror and become preoccupied with which ones that are our strengths and which are our weaknesses.That would be a mistake though.

We cannot naturally produce all of these in our lives on a consistent basis. The key to the fruit of the Spirit is THE SPIRIT. We must submit and surrender to the Spirit's control (Eph. 5:18), staying connected to the Vine. And when we do, those qualities will supernaturally grow out of our transformed hearts.

I decided not to preach a special 'Thanksgiving' message. Where we are at with Galatians 5:16-26 is a great fit. With food on everyone's minds, maybe it will be easier to remember the spiritual fruit that the Spirit desires to produce in our lives.

Music Monday - Songs I'm Embarrassed to Like

This week I'm going in a new direction with Music Mondays.  I'm going to pick a few songs over the next few weeks that I own on iTunes that might surprise those that know me. They may not all be songs I'm super-embarrassed to like, but they are selections I probably won't be shouting from the rooftops anytime soon.

Having said that, I am certainly embarrassed about this first song. I never really liked it when it came out on the radio. It's not a Christian song (which is something that may raise eyebrows since I'm a pastor). It is a song for a generation of youth much younger than I. It's sung by an artist whose reputation grows worse and worse the more she remains in the public spotlight. 

Then why is it in my iTunes library? 

Because in 2011, I led a basketball missions trip with 9 high school-ers from the basketball team I coached. We would go from town to town, game to game and play various teams. We would bring our own basketballs, nets, and sound system to each location to give the event a 'big-time' feel.

Since we had a sound system, we of course would play warm-up music as we got ready and someway, somehow this song found its way into the rotation and quickly became our group's favorite since it represented us as Americans visiting this foreign country. Even thousands of miles away, the crowds in each town recognized the song and often would sing along to it when it played.

So much of me wants to dislike this song. And yet with all the memories from trip that I associate with it now, I can't help but smile and sing along myself. 

Without further adieu, Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA:

Sermon Snippets

 

So much of the Christian life is a balancing act. Finding the middle ground between two opposite extremes is often tricky business.

 

Paul addresses one of the most basic balancing struggles we face in Galatians 5. Much of his letter is focused on rejecting the idea of adding rules to faith. He argues that following the OT Law and the legalism it demands is incompatible with the freedom we have been granted in Christ. He continues this argument in chapter five by saying,

"...do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery....You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." - Gal. 5:2-4

Adding legalism to our faith is an extreme we must be sure to avoid. But so is the other extreme of licentiousness. Paul addresses that opposite approach in verse 13:

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature..."

We can't live like God's grace didn't come at with a price. It didn't cost anything, but it cost Jesus his life.

'YOLO' is a popular saying these days (for those uninformed, it stands for You Only Live Once). And by and large, it seems to thrown out anytime someone is looking for an excuse to do whatever they want no matter how stupid or sinful. It's true we only live once, therefore Paul says at the end of verse 13:

"...do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love."

Just as we cannot give in to the spiritual extreme of legalism, neither can we slip into the extreme of licentiousness, or what I'm going to label "loosey-goosey living".
In fifteen short verses, Paul's outlined how to successfully walk the tightrope that is the Christian life. There are a couple more keys for how to find balance in the Christian life...come Sunday and find out what they are.

Music Mondays: Songs that Teach us Stuff

One of my most treasured memories from growing up in church was taking communion as led by Dr. Ivan French. He was my pastor up until the fifth grade. His sermons consistently pointed us to the Cross and our wonderful Savior. 

When we would observe communion on a monthly basis, he would normally conclude the service with "When I Survey the Wonderful Cross". Thankfully, after Pastor French retired, his successor, Dr. Les Lofquist kept that tradition. It became of my favorite hymns because it elaborates on what Jesus' sacrifice means to you and me. In doing so, it clearly echoes Philippians 3:7-10:

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

The Cross humbles us. It strips us of our pride and presents us with the righteousness we could only obtain through faith in what Christ has done for us. The final verse of this hymn has stuck with me for years - "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."

Music Mondays: Songs that Teach us Stuff

The Thanksgiving holiday seems to get overlooked more and more in our society. Once Halloween is over, stores quickly set up their Christmas decorations so customers will be encouraged to buy more stuff.

Other than turkey's, ham's, and other meal-related accessories, Thanksgiving doesn't offer much to cash-in on for commercial businesses. 

That's too bad. For the Church, Thanksgiving should be celebrated elaborately and enthusiastically. It has been and continues to be. 

For this week's edition of Music Monday, I was skimming through a hymnal and noticed many of the popular Christmas songs and thought I might want to feature some Thanksgiving songs in light of this upcoming holiday. In the Index, there was a category of "Thanksgiving" hymns and I'll be selecting some songs from that list in upcoming weeks. 

This week, I'm picking a familiar song that isn't related to our November holiday, but is meaningful as we enjoy the fall season's colors and beauty.

It is also meaningful when we consider a text like Psalm 19:1-6 which similarly extols the wonders of God's creation and how they reveal God's glory and goodness.

Truly "This is My Father's World" -

Sermon Snippets

Good or bad, our father's have an incredible influence on us.

Not only do they affect our physical appearance but they can have an even greater impact on our personality and worldview.  They can love, encourage, and inspire us. But they can also denigrate, embitter, and neglect us. They can leave us a legacy that makes success easily achievable or one that perpetually haunts us.

Whatever our parental backgrounds, Galatians 3:26-4:7 calls us to look beyond our earthly fathers and focus on our heavenly Father. In Christ, we are made sons of God and heirs of a promise that dwarfs any inheritance of material wealth that anyone could leave us in will.

In Christ, we have more than we could ever ask for as sons and daughters of God. The very essence of who we are is transformed and we are given rights and privileges that are impossible to earn or attain on our own.

²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
4 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. ² The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. ³ So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. ⁴ But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. ⁶ Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba", Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.