Overview
This Montana Christian Festival teaching considers the witness of music as part of the witness of God’s creation. Heidi Sather and Massey Brooks consider rhythm, harmony, sound, singing, praise, and the ways music reflects order and gives expression to thanksgiving. The speaker connects observable features of the created world with Scripture, emphasizing design, order, provision, interdependence, and the Creator’s care.
Transcript
Music as Part of God’s Creation
My name is Massey Brooks for those of you who have not met me or I have not had the pleasure of meeting you and Tonight they told me that I was in charge of the music stuff and I said All right So tonight's gonna be really well, hopefully very fun, but I'm certain it's going to be relaxed Who here likes music who here doesn't like music? Oh, well, you could oh, you don't okay. Well, you can stay You're invited to stay whether you like music or you don't like music, we're here to play music and When we think about music throughout the word and Heidi's going to tackle this in a teaching in a minute it ministers and There's an old saying that goes music can take people further faster than any other means of communication. I Believe there's some truth to that.
So tonight we're going to play some music We're gonna have a handful of different styles of music we're expecting that it'll bless somebody in the crowd and ideally it blesses a couple somebodies and throughout this night If you need to get up and go to the bathroom refresh yourself get some ice cream at the deli. Please go for it. Also Not only do we allow you to sing along I implore you to join with us Tonight tonight is about us.
This is a group event. This is not a concert These aren't performances. We're here to share in the ministering of music so please join with us and for those of you who we've talked to and if others that we haven't if during this we're gonna have a bit of a jam session time where a few of us will be up Here if the if you want to join us up here and join in on the singing come join us And if you're off-key, I'm gonna stick the little man on the back at you and have him correct you say a little higher But please join with us get up dance sing.
Enjoy yourselves tonight this again. This is not a performance We're not here to stand here and show you something we're here to celebrate together the goodness of God the beauty of his creation and the joy of music and To teach a little bit of the word on that subject right now. I introduced you miss Heidi Sather All right Well, God bless you guys It certainly is that it's an honor and it's a privilege to be able to share God's Word with you this evening about the witness of God's creation regarding music and It certainly is such a deep topic It is found throughout the word and for those of you that do have your Bibles with you We've got several places to look at in God's Word Seeing what it has to say about music and how significant music really is to our Heavenly Father both in worship and praise to him and in ministering and encouraging one another so it's one of those beautiful Means that God has given us to take us out of the ordinary to the extraordinary For those of you to have your Bibles if you'd like to please turn to the gospel of Mark Mark chapter 12, please and It's very interesting.
This passage is something that many of us have read many times but I want us to consider this in light of the witness of God's creation in music and So here we are in the gospel of Mark chapter 12 and We're going to start here in verse 28 and this of course is where Jesus is talking with scribes and So in verse 28 one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together and Perceiving that he Jesus had answered them. Well asked him which of is the first commandment of all and Jesus answered him the first of all the commandments is Here O Israel The Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and With all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength This is the first commandment and the second is like namely this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself there is none other commandment greater than these and The scribe said unto him well master thou hast said the truth For there is one God and there is none other but he and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength and to love his neighbor as himself is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices and when Jesus saw that he'd answered discreetly he said unto him thou art not far from the kingdom of God and So no man after that durst asked him any questions But in this section, I want us to consider What it means to worship God with our whole heart soul mind and Strength in light of music and so if you have your Bible with you, please turn to the ninth Psalm Psalm 9, please Psalm 9 And we're considering praising God with our whole heart and it's just so beautiful how God has it here for us and Starting in verse 1 says I will praise thee. Oh Lord with my whole heart I will show forth all my marvelous works.
I will be glad and rejoice in thee I will sing praise to thy name. Oh thou most high So God wants this for us. He wants us to praise his name He wants us to sing to him It blesses him when we sing to him and we certainly want to bless God and it's a very easy and enjoyable way to do it We'll continue in Psalms if you want to turn forward to Psalm 57 We've looked at heart.
And so now I want us to consider our whole soul and in Psalm 57 Psalm 57 starting in verse 1. This is be merciful unto me. Oh God be merciful unto me For my soul trusteth in me. Yea in the shadow of thy wings while I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed and Look at this in the same context down to verse 7. My heart is fixed.
Oh God. My heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Awake up my glory awake psaltery and harp. I myself will awake early.
I will praise thee Oh Lord among the people I will sing among the nations Unto thee among the nations for thy mercy is great unto the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds God certainly is merciful and he has excellent truth and he wants us to sing to him among all the peoples Not to be ashamed We can boldly sing our praises towards our God and we'll certainly do that here So let's look at this a little bit in the New Testament now if you turn to the epistle of Romans Romans please chapter 15 and this is where we're considering Mind our whole heart soul mind Romans chapter 15 and starting in verse 5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ See God certainly wants us to lift up our our hearts towards him He wants us to glorify him with our mouth and certainly with our mind with our whole mind and to be unified in one heart You go back to the Old Testament now to first Chronicles first and second Samuel first and second Kings first and second Chronicles first Chronicles chapters 13 and And this is beautiful talking about King David and of course we all know the Bible has him recorded he was a man after God's own heart and he certainly was a singer and A performer a player he played the harp. In fact, he'd cast out devil spirits and playing with his harp and so here we are now in first Chronicles chapter 13 and in verse 8 and David and all Israel played before God with all their might And with singing and with harps and with psalteries and with timbrels and with cymbals and with trumpets They they played with their whole heart. They were showing their joy and praise to God and it's a time of rejoicing And God loves that he enjoys it.
Sound, Rhythm, and Harmony
He loves to see his kids doing that. So we bless God when we do that so we've considered how we worship God with our whole heart soul mind and strength and So now I want us to look at again in the New Testament of some of the significance of this in the Christian Church Today, and so if we want to turn please to Colossians chapter 3 Colossians chapter 3 and this is kind of fun I know a lot of us spent some time last year trekking through Colossians. So it has a new special place for me But it's very practical and things that we can do together in this day and age in this time and what we can do to See God's Word live for our generation and in Colossians chapter 3 We'll start in verse 12 Which states put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering This sounds pretty good And we need it.
God knows that we need it. We've got to have it if you don't have this Then the adversary is caused division. He's caused hurt.
He's caused pain. This is the opposite of pain When you can have kindness and long-suffering Let's continue verse 13 forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any Even as Christ forgave you so also do ye and above all these things put on that charity that love of God and renewed mind and manifestation which is the bond of perfectness and Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. So which also you're called in one body and be thankful and Look at this in the middle of this context on the heels of this verse 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord God wants this and when we do this, we're doing his will we're having a great time and we're doing his will isn't that great? It's a win-win and it's a way that we can minister to each other and then in verse 17 And whatsoever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Giving thanks to God and the Father by him See, it's very important to God that we share and express ourselves this way It's significant to him and it certainly blesses us.
So let's go back to Psalms again. Psalm 33, please and I'm tickled because Reverend Gene Slavitt opened with this this morning with his teaching So it's kind of cool how it dovetails together in light of music, but in Psalm 33 starting in verse 1 Says rejoice in the Lord. Oh you righteous for praise is calmly for the upright Calmly, that means it's it's beautiful It's lovely Do you know what the opposite of calmly is? Ugly and you know, it's fascinating in God's Word But in the epistles we're talking about the deep spiritual matters about What we're supposed to do with this gift of Holy Spirit and 1st Corinthians 13 1 it says Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels and have not charity I am become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal and try to get people's understanding about these deep spiritual matters He communicates with music Everybody knows when something's off-key and it doesn't sound right.
It doesn't sound right and with God when we do things With no love we do things to add an obligation if we do things because we have to it sounds Attitude doesn't sound right. He wants us to do things with that love that joy in our heart We wants us to do things with that love we express and then it's beautiful It's calmly and that's what we certainly want. Let's continue here in Psalm 33 verse 2 Praise the Lord with the harp.
I love how this totally played the harp for us this morning. That was so awesome and That was one of the instruments that they had back way back when and it's so beautiful. So I just feel relaxed I feel peaceful when I hear strumming of the harp.
It's just one of those instruments. It's a true blessing. So, thank you but it says Praise the Lord with the harp sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings Well, some of our guitars only have six strings, but that'll be alright Sing unto him a new song play skillfully with a loud voice For the Word of the Lord is right and all his works are done in truth.
Absolutely He loveth righteousness and judgment and the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord And that certainly is what we are focusing on this weekend is the witness of God's creation the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord and one of those means is with music and Even in listening to the birds chirping in the morning or the grasshoppers at night the earth is just filled with the goodness of the Lord and then of course we have the Opportunity and joy to lift up our voices together and sing and to share and praise to God So with that I'd like to close with Psalm 100 for those of you to have your Bible you can turn to Psalm 100 or if you have your Handbook with you. It should be page 8 And I would like for us to go ahead and stand and let's sing together this beautiful beautiful psalm of David Psalm 100 and we'll just have a lot of fun with this and May introduce something new that you haven't done before and that's okay. And if you don't know this song That's alright, too.
You just listen and follow along and you'll pick it up pretty easy So we're gonna start off here with Psalm 100 Oh And the sheeple is asked to praise God. Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God.
Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah.
Music in Scripture
Praise God. Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless, bless his name. Praise God.
Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah.
Praise God. Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God.
Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God. For the Lord, the Lord is good.
His mercy is everlasting. And his truth, his truth endureth to all, to all generations. Praise God.
Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah.
Praise God. Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God.
Hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. Praise God. Talk a little bit about praising God.
Singing, Praise, and Thanksgiving
You know, when you think about praise, there's a lot of different ways to do it. We often use our voice. And actually, a lot of God's handiwork use their voice or the things that make noise on them.
She mentioned the crickets and the birds. You know, when they make noise, that means they're healthy. When they're ill, or when they're in the wrong state of mind, or when they're in danger, they're silent.
But the animals are chirping and squawking and singing when everything is all right. And when we praise God, one of the ways we do that is with our voice. We can sing it.
We can say it. Sometimes we praise God in our actions. We don't have to say a word.
And sometimes it's in a simple sigh. You know, there was a time where there was some folks in the Old Testament that groaned and the Lord heard them and heard their prayer. Sigh to God if you know nothing else about how to praise Him.
Start there. Start with a thought. Even a question.
God, how good are you? Teach me. Show me. And when we praise God, what our body does is good.
Stay in control. Dance hard. Don't break your leg.
You want to raise your hands up. The praise is not in the hands. We see that in the Word.
The worship is not in the hands. But if that helps you see what the power of God is doing, it reminds you where it's coming from, hands are good. You know, a good friend of mine, Daniel Strickland, reminded me when he prays, sometimes he pictures holding a stack of logs.
Making Melody Together
And he goes, okay God. And then his hands are free. And the burden changes shoulders.
Prayers praise. Sighing can be praise. Gentle thoughts towards each other can be also praise towards God.
God, thank you for my best friend. Thank you for my spouse. There's great peace in praise.
There's great power in praise because when you look to God, at least your focus is on something of quality. Guaranteed. We can look at a lot of quality things in life, but I guarantee you that the peace of God and the praise of God is worth our focus.
And so as we think about the birds, they chirp for joy, for peace, for comfort. They don't chirp in danger, or distress, or fear. They're quiet.
So when you hear the sounds of the earth, consider it praise towards God. He made them. And they're singing when everything's right.
And maybe we can consider in our life how to praise God in a lot of different ways. There's a lot of ways to pray. Prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgiving.
There's a lot of different ways that we can pray. We can ask. We can talk.
We can share. We can even demand. God, you promised this.
The Witness Music Gives
I demand receipt. Just as you go to demand receipt of a check when you go to the bank.
Key Takeaways
- The the witness of music presents observable patterns that point to order, purpose, and design.
- Creation can be studied as a classroom that deepens respect for God when it is considered alongside Scripture.
- Natural systems display provision, boundaries, interdependence, and remarkable specialized abilities.
- Romans 1 supplies a biblical foundation for perceiving invisible qualities of God through what He made.
- The proper response is gratitude and worship of the Creator rather than worship of the created world.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the witness of music reveal about God?
The teaching presents the witness of music as evidence of purposeful design, ordered systems, provision, and care that direct attention to the Creator.
How does the teaching connect nature and Scripture?
The speaker compares observable features of creation with biblical passages, using the natural world as a classroom that illustrates spiritual truths.
What response does the teaching encourage?
It encourages attentive observation, gratitude, humility, stewardship, and worship of God rather than worship of the created world.
Scripture References
Romans 1:19–20; Psalm 19:1–4; Genesis 1; Psalm 9; Psalm 57; Psalm 33; Corinthians 13; Psalm 100
Verification Note
Prepared from a recovered transcript. Verify proper names, technical terms, quotations, and verse wording against the original recording and a Bible before publication.
