Sin and Temptation: Week 2, Day 2

Day 2: It’s Only Rock and Roll, and I Like It!

Last week we looked at TV and movies, so today let’s talk about music. When I was a kid, some evangelist guy came to my church and went off about the music kids listened to. He told us that at the end of the week, we were going to go out into the church parking lot and burn any and all records that we wanted to get rid of. To me, this guy was a joke. Burn my records?! Get real! Do you know how much these records cost? (I realize that calling my music “records” makes me appear to be old, and that is because I am old…Jingle Bam!)

As I got older, I heard other speakers talk on the subject of rock music. They would say things like, “the beat is bad for you, and it makes you do strange things.” If you play these records backward, they will say evil things to you like “You are supposed to smoke marijuana” or “I serve Satan.” I never could hear what they told me that I should be able to hear, so as a result, I was very defensive when it came to my music. I would say things back to these speakers like, “Don’t worry, it doesn’t affect me,” or “I just like the beat,” or my favorite, “I don’t listen to the words, I just like the music.” It wasn’t that I didn’t believe what these guys were saying…I didn’t care! You see, I had God in a spiritual box. I told God that He could save me and take me to Heaven, but I didn’t want Him to interfere with any other areas of my life, including my entertainment and my music. If you have God in a box like I did, let me give you a rude awakening. God doesn’t live in a box, and if you haven’t given all of your life to God, then He has none of it. Either Jesus is Lord and Boss of all your life, or He is Lord and Boss of none of it. There is no in-between. I didn’t have a music problem. I had a spiritual problem.

At age 15, I gave my life to Christ. Not part of it, but all of it. It didn’t happen overnight. God started working on my life bit by bit, step by step. After God and I got rid of one messed-up area in my life, He would move onto another one. (Let me encourage you. God is still working on me. He reveals to me attitudes and sins that I need to get rid of. As long as you are alive, God will be working on you. It’s your job to sit back and let Him work it out.)

After a few months of truly understanding that Jesus calls the shots in every aspect of my life and not just the ones I wanted to hand over to Him, God began to work on me about the music I was listening to. God began to reveal to me that there was some music in my life that wasn’t good. I mean, it’s difficult to say you love Christ when you are listening to songs that talk about sex and running with the devil. So I wasn’t excited when I felt God’s Holy Spirit asking me to put up some of my tunes. I was mad, but I had to make a decision. Did I love my music more than God, or did I love God more than my music? There was no contest. My music didn’t die for me. My music didn’t risk it all to have a relationship with me. My music wasn’t going to take me to Heaven. I let go and let God, and He replaced all that messed up music with better music. Here are the criteria I use when I listen to music. I ask the following questions.

What do the words say in the songs? Do they agree with the Bible?
What images represent the band? Are they pure and holy?
What are the lifestyles of the musicians? Am I supporting them in a habit or lifestyle that is displeasing to God?
Would Jesus listen to and enjoy this music?

There is an alternative out there. There are thousands of Christian musicians living off very little money trying to offer you an alternative. So what are you holding on to? Let it go, and let God give you something new. Something better!

Time Out.

Write out Proverbs 19:27:

If a person stops listening to the Word of God, what happens to them?

According to James 4:17, if a person knows the good he ought to be doing and doesn’t do it, that person is what?

Pick out your favorite 5 bands or singers. Write their names below:

Now take the test above using these bands. Did they pass or fail?

If they failed, what are you going to do about it?

Romans 12:9 says, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Are you clinging to what is evil and hating what is good?