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00:00:01
The Truth About Emotions in Faith: Are We Suppressing Them?
43 Plays27 days ago
In this episode, Dan Sanchez, Jon Ballard, and Pastor Ridley Barron dive into the role of emotions in our spiritual walk. They explore the balance between emotion and logic in faith, touching on how emotions can both enrich our relationship with God and, at times, lead us astray if not properly anchored in Scripture. From personal stories of worship and repentance to discussing the cultural tensions around emotions in Christianity, they unpack how emotional responses can either deepen or hinder our spiritual growth. The conversation also reflects on worship music’s power to stir the heart and connect believers with God on a deeper level.
Timestamps:
00:29 Dan’s worship experience during his commute
02:19 The emotional depth of Scripture and worship
03:23 Jon's thoughts on balancing emotions in faith
04:24 Ridley on emotions and rationality in spiritual life
07:20 The importance of joy and enthusiasm in worship
11:04 Personal experiences of God’s provision and emotion in Scripture
12:23 Seeking emotional repentance and feeling God's heart
16:10 Emotional moments in the Garden of Gethsemane
17:46 The connection between repentance, emotion, and logic
19:44 Do emotions in faith change as we mature?
23:43 Emotions to be cautious of in our Christian walk
26:36 The emotional power of worship music in drawing us closer to God
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Transcript
Introduction and Emotional Connection
00:00:00
grovehillchurch
Welcome back to the Grove Hill Church podcast. I'm Dan Sanchez. and Today I'm joined by John and Ridley. No Kyle this week. But I'm excited to kick this off with a ah ah little story. I was literally just commuting or commuting back to my home office from my new employer. It's a little bit of a commute down to Centerville. It's like an hour and 10 minutes. It's a smooth commute. It's just, I don't have to go through Nashville. It's not stop and go. Just me, cruise control and whatever CD I got going on.
00:00:29
grovehillchurch
And I was thinking about this upcoming podcast, thinking about the sermon from the Sunday about, you know, being a living sacrifice. And I honestly wasn't prepared. i didn't I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to talk about on this podcast. So I turned on some worship music and had a hard time getting into it. And I just started forcing myself to sing the words. And it was some passionate worship music. And I was getting into it, even thinking about thinking about the topic of crucifixion.
00:00:58
grovehillchurch
And you know what happened? You know, the whole experience, the funny thing is the songs I kept getting were like around like crucifixion. And I'm like, what is happening right now? And I start like my emotions start going off the wall.
00:01:10
grovehillchurch
I'm like, God, what are you trying to tell me right now? And I reflect back, my family was reading in James this morning, James three, talking about essentially not becoming worldly, but becoming
00:01:19
Ridley
And.
00:01:22
grovehillchurch
I don't know, like I ah really need to pull it up. Let me pull it up right here and do it justice. Pull it up here, in my Bible app. It was, sorry, James 4.
00:01:35
grovehillchurch
And it says, like, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
00:01:46
grovehillchurch
humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you." And he's saying this after coming about, like talking about people being friends with the world and essentially being worldly. And all this is happening to me as I'm driving, as I'm worshiping, and I'm realizing I'm like, man, you know what?
Emotions vs. Rationality in Faith
00:02:01
grovehillchurch
This is a very emotional process as I'm even thinking about my own life and distractions and coming back to it and getting back to the heart and worship as a way of doing that. And I'm like, how, this is kind of interesting because you think about that passage and you think about,
00:02:16
grovehillchurch
how emotional, how emotionally driven that is. Like you don't live a wretched and live with mourning and going low without having some sense of emotion. Yet I find that a lot of us kind of go through the rhythm without really feeling it. We read the Bible. We're like, that was good. And we go about our lives. So today I wanted to talk about, and I was a long, long opening, but it's led me to where I'd love to talk to John, you and and you Ridley about the place of emotions in our spiritual walk.
00:02:47
grovehillchurch
because I find we live in a world that distracts us a lot. From the walk with christ from living a crucified life living as that that living sacrifice And i'm kind of want to hear your initial impressions as far as emotions go because I feel like we live Also with this like warning of the heart is deceptive above all things and to kind of almost like shun emotions I don't dont even know if we know how to treat emotions sometimes in this walk.
00:02:56
Ridley
Mm hmm.
00:03:13
grovehillchurch
So what's your initial? I have follow-up questions, but what's your your initial impression?
00:03:18
Jon
I believe that there's a place for for emotions. I believe that whether it's highs or lows, we could run down the gamut of either lives in um testimonies of people living those highs and lows. And I'm sure they were accompanied with emotions. I mean, we can look at our own surroundings and emotions are a valuable thing.
00:03:45
Jon
but they're not what needs to be the lead whenever it comes to our interaction with God. I believe that, yes, that can be a wonderful thing. There can be happiness that comes from joy. like All those things need to be rooted in the focus and foundation of Christ. And if they're not, if it's just an emotion that's coming from self preservation or self worship. Uh, it's not a good place. So yeah, definitely believe there's a place for it.
00:04:18
Ridley
Yeah, you mentioned the caution that we're giving in Jeremiah 17 about the heart. I do think that's there for a reason because the heart can be very deceptive. Our emotions can deceive us into thinking a certain way or be in a certain way.
00:04:31
Ridley
But I think when it's held in proper balance with logic and reason and rational thinking, if it makes both of them better. you know You go back to the story of Jesus with the woman at the well. He said that the Lord looks for people who worship Him in spirit and in truth. It it expresses this dichotomy we have. It's kind of like in elementary school. I went through this fat
Personal Spiritual Journeys
00:04:54
Ridley
boy period where nobody wanted to get on the the the seesaw with the fat boy because they couldn't get it to go down. you know and As the kid, I recognize, you know, you got to have balance in life. You got to have balance in all things. There are seasons, there are moments where reason has to be more prominent than emotion. But I think there's also seasons where emotion plays the more prominent prominent role and and lets logic take a backseat for a little while. And it sounds like this morning might have been one of those moments for you.
00:05:22
grovehillchurch
It's one of those moments. so I mean, I grew up in a a Baptist church and I'd say probably a cessationist Baptist church, because I assume it was cessationist because they never talked about the gifts of the spirit.
00:05:31
Ridley
Right?
00:05:31
grovehillchurch
Hardly talked about miracles, only like sometimes related to prayer, but I don't think they believed it but some of the times, you know?
00:05:40
grovehillchurch
But, and then I i went into a discipleship program that was leaned more charismatic. And then from there, I went off into the deep end of like some more charismatic. I didn't go Pentecostal, but like it was pretty charismatic. A lot of the ministries I worked for and when it's very emotional and how I've kind of come back a little bit, being like, okay, this guy's like.
00:05:54
Jon
Mm
00:05:56
Ridley
Yeah.
00:05:56
grovehillchurch
a little bit too run by emotions and it's needs to be a little bit more grounded in scripture.
00:05:58
Jon
hmm.
00:06:00
grovehillchurch
But now I do find myself finding that I'm like, you know, I feel like there is a place to really wrestle with God. And it's a, it can be a very emotional endeavor. I'm almost wondering if it's something that should be sought out.
00:06:12
grovehillchurch
Like if you haven't felt like some really deep abiding joy in reading the word or in worship or prayer, should that be concerning?
00:06:22
Ridley
I think so. I think, again, if you go even just to the fruits of the spirit, so many of the fruits of the spirit are connected to our emotions. So I feel like if you have experienced nothing but logical, rational approach to Jesus, to to God's word, those kinds of things, then it probably is a sign that you are either squelching or resisting or i don't I don't know what other word you want to use there, but you're doing something to inhibit those emotions that can be connected to this. I mean, Jesus wept, Paul had anger. Emotions are just a natural part of being a human being. Even God has a righteous anger for things. And in in those seasons, he allows that anger to be expressed. So I think for those of us who don't allow emotions to become a part of it,
00:07:12
Ridley
It's because somewhere along the way we've been deceived into believing that's not a necessary part of our walk.
00:07:18
grovehillchurch
Sometimes I wonder if Christianity, especially in Baptist circles, feels a little bit more stoic um and steady. And there's there's good to that because the ones who are less emotional in the decision making often make better better choices. But at the same time,
00:07:35
grovehillchurch
Man, there's something about, like if you're listening to this and you haven't actually had this like moment where you get like so excited about the gospel, you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it, God, oh my gosh, you're so good.
00:07:46
grovehillchurch
And I'm over-exaggerating it a little bit right now, but honestly, it feels like that.
00:07:46
Ridley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:51
grovehillchurch
Then I feel like, man, when it's kind of missing out.
00:07:57
Jon
Yeah, I believe the same in that same line of thinking, Dan, that if you're not excited about what God's done for you and it's it puts you in a ah ah place of being stoic, like
Repentance and Emotional Expression
00:08:10
Jon
First of all, God's gift to us, if we really have an indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our natural reaction is to be outward in what He's done for us. Again, I believe the natural reaction because I believe the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
00:08:30
Jon
The catalyst part of that is, hey, God's done something for you, therefore it's flowing out of you. It's the in and out breath that you breathe in every day. And that leads to sometimes living in a ah ah place of just enthusiasm with your life, excitement.
00:08:49
Jon
And again, going through tough stuff, yeah, there's going to be sad emotions, difficulties, but it's not going to be anything that you want to be quiet about.
00:08:57
Ridley
All right.
00:08:58
grovehillchurch
yeah
00:08:59
Ridley
And the great danger for so many, especially men, we know that probably men are are ones who deal more with this, but The great danger of the pushing down of those emotions, the containing of your emotions.
00:09:12
Ridley
is that you wake up one day and realize now I'm having to try to manufacture emotions because I have ignored them for so long. And you don't want to get to that place. gu That's when your faith really becomes a very dry feeling kind of thing.
00:09:21
grovehillchurch
yeah yeah
00:09:26
Ridley
It's kind of like eating mama's cornbread without anything to wash it down. on You got to have something in there.
00:09:30
grovehillchurch
yeah
00:09:31
Ridley
So I would encourage, especially guys, but I know women who've been through traumatic experiences who sometimes try to get a grasp of their emotions a lot of times.
00:09:31
grovehillchurch
yeah
00:09:40
Ridley
don't Don't be afraid of expressing your emotions. Just always be aware that there's a balance there between the two and that a genuine faith carries both elements to it.
00:09:45
grovehillchurch
Yeah, yeah. What does it look like for each of you when you're having like, let's say an emotional moment, but ah and in a good way in your own quiet spaces with the Lord? does that you does Are you usually doing something specific is during worship, reading the word, maybe maybe something else? What does it usually look like for each of you?
00:10:09
Ridley
I think my emotions come at different times for different reasons in those settings but one of my favorites to me is when I'm reading a passage of scripture and it clicks like a light bulb goes on and I see something I missed the first 28 times I read it and it just boom and it Literally, this is what happened.
00:10:20
grovehillchurch
Amen.
00:10:27
Ridley
I'll read it and it's like a chill runs up my back. And it's kind of the way John expressed it just a minute. It's kind of like you're going, holy cow, I've missed this so many times.
00:10:38
Ridley
This is just amazing that God does this, you know? that that's kind of one of my favorite moments is one of those where God's spirit gets through my thick head and helps me to understand something.
00:10:50
Jon
Yeah, I would say that that's probably those times specifically in my personal alone time being overwhelmed at God's provision throughout scripture and his faithfulness.
00:10:50
grovehillchurch
What about you?
00:11:06
Jon
We've been, I've been studying through Daniel just in the last week and God's provision and faithfulness time and time and time after time again, even in seasons to where there was an allowance of God letting things happen in the lives of people, God still had his plan of preservation for his people all along. And i'm I'm overwhelmed at that time and time again. And so that emotional side,
00:11:35
Jon
I get very emotional because of God's wanting to preserve my life and save my life, spiritually speaking.
00:11:44
Ridley
Yeah.
00:11:46
Jon
Overwhelmed at that almost on a weekly basis. Maybe in the car, maybe you're sitting at the house, there's not really specific places. It's happened all over the place. But I believe that that happens again because we're submitting ourselves and we're not and trying to
00:11:58
Ridley
Yeah.
00:12:03
Jon
manufacturer anything, but it's again spirit driven.
00:12:08
grovehillchurch
sometimes i do i can't say that i'm manufacturing it but i'm asking god for it specifically when it comes to sin you're like god help me to feel like how you feel about this because i feel numb to it god help me to like help me just weep over this because i know you weep over this
00:12:13
Jon
a
00:12:14
Ridley
yeah
00:12:23
Ridley
Yeah.
00:12:26
grovehillchurch
God, move and I'm essentially asking them to like wreck me emotionally. know Because if I know if it hits me emotionally, it's going to affect me inwardly.
00:12:30
Ridley
Yep.
00:12:34
grovehillchurch
It's going to come out outwardly. Not that you know you need emotions in order to drive good decisions, right? But in some cases, repentance probably shouldn't be emotional.
00:12:44
grovehillchurch
I find i I like it best when I'm out running. That's one of my reasons reasons why I love runnings, because I'm out there. my heart's pounding and I'm already pushing myself to an edge and sometimes I just get into a mode with God where I'm like, God, you and me, like how far can we take this? He puts on good worship music on that's like more intense. And it's just like, God, you know, running hard,
Cultivating Emotional Experiences in Worship
00:13:05
grovehillchurch
like feeling your body start to physically break down as your, maybe your spirits break down. I don't know why that that that is a thing for me, but I'm sure other people have probably felt it when they weren't they they bring the Holy Spirit along for a workout too.
00:13:19
Ridley
I can honestly tell you I have never felt that while I was running down.
00:13:23
grovehillchurch
Your God help me not die.
00:13:26
Ridley
It it was probably a different emotion and darling that I was feeling. No, I get what you're saying, though. It's, you know, sometimes I think that those kinds of settings are best for our emotions because they it's almost like they catch us off guard instead of like a Not that you can't have a emotion in a worship experience, but sometimes you go into a worship experience and it's like you're preparing yourself for it.
00:13:50
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:13:50
Ridley
You're almost looking for it and so you come away disappointed if it doesn't happen or you get to towards the end of the service and again you're trying to manufacture something that hasn't happened yet. But then I've had some pretty cool moments just riding on the back of my lawnmower cutting my grass listening to worship music and Again, a song you've heard a hundred times and a phrase just kind of leaps out of of the earphones and you go, man, that's, that's the goodness of God right there.
00:14:10
grovehillchurch
Yeah. yeah
00:14:19
Jon
We will.
00:14:21
grovehillchurch
Find it takes some time sometimes, right? It's why you have a long, long Lawn mowing experience, right? He takes a couple hours and I this commute I have I'm grateful it takes like over an hour to get there But through that I can listen to a lot of worship songs um and maybe that's the way it's what works in retreats Like you come to men's retreat and it's like finally some guys are breaking down about some things.
00:14:28
Ridley
Three hours. to migraine Yeah.
00:14:40
grovehillchurch
You're like, why didn't we do this throughout the year?
00:14:40
Ridley
Yeah.
00:14:41
grovehillchurch
It's like well if we get really like when's the last time we've gone into worship and focus time into the word for more than an hour
00:14:51
Ridley
yeah I think there's two things, two factors that usually kind of lend themselves to helping us. One of them you just mentioned is time. An extended time with God or an extended time alone or an extended time in worship.
00:15:01
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:15:06
Ridley
Those kinds of things help And then I think the other one is just a change of behavior. know, if you go through the same routine every morning, doing your, you know, your shower, your shave, your quiet time, whatever, sometimes you can get caught in those ruts. But that's, to your point, that's why I think retreats are so fantastic, because now you're suddenly breaking away from the monotony of the routine.
00:15:27
Ridley
the rituals we all go through, the noise of the phone or the TV, and you're allowed to have those extended periods to just reflect on what God has done.
00:15:42
grovehillchurch
Do you feel like it's possible? Like, is one able to really crucify themselves without some kind of sense of emotion?
00:15:49
Jon
I would say I go to the Garden of Gethsemane. I think the fact that I'm seeing emotion there.
00:15:56
Ridley
That's good.
00:15:59
Jon
I don't think you can read that without seeing some type of anguish, some sense of emotion. I mean, I can't imagine, but I think we should have such an awareness of God's provision, but also our sin and what he's done for us. I think that sometimes brings us into a place of great emotion, and just of thankfulness. and Again, I think there's too many times to where you see that and a emotion. It is accompanied with the awareness of what the scriptures talk are talking about.
00:16:40
Ridley
ah ah you You mentioned this word a minute ago, Dan, and it's ah ah such a keystone to our faith, the word repentance.
00:16:47
Jon
Mm.
00:16:48
Ridley
Repentance is a word that by definition combines logic with with feeling. Because if you look up a definition of repentance, you're probably going to get something like regret or remorse for certain behavior that requires a commitment to change or something like that. So you
Emotional Maturity and Spiritual Growth
00:17:08
Ridley
hear they're both elements. There's a regret, an emotion that says, man, that was wrong. I shouldn't have done that. That comes with a acknowledgement mentally, that that's what happened and an acknowledgement mentally that I need to commit myself to a new way of living.
00:17:24
Ridley
And so you're you're talking about you know being crucified. I don't think so. I mean, because in order to lay down your life, in order to really do what Christ commanded commanded us to do, you've got to have genuine repentance that says, the path I'm on right now is not where God wants me to be.
00:17:41
grovehillchurch
I've also heard it said, this is from C.S. Lewis, and I've i've i've heard this from a young age, and I've always held it and wrestled with it because I feel like there's a place for emotions and then it doesn't go away. Yet this wisdom from Lewis always made me wrestle with this in that, and it's funny because I can't find this in the Bible, but it's like it's C.S.
00:17:59
grovehillchurch
Lewis. But he talked about like the, a common scenario in Christians is that in the very beginning of their faith, it's much more emotional, emotionally led.
00:18:06
Ridley
Uh-huh.
00:18:11
grovehillchurch
almost as if God's like, put us on like this milk, you know, to help us nurture us. But over time, as you get older, you don't need the emotion so much, you learn how to walk on your own two feet. That's not exactly how he said it, but it's essentially the sentiment of it. um um But I do wrestle with the fact I'm like, I don't know, like,
00:18:31
grovehillchurch
Maybe it's not the same level of emotions, but there's still emotions there. And I feel like God is most glorified when you take the most joy in him. When you're like, nah, I don't, I don't need that drink tonight. Like I'm so satisfied in the Lord. i That is, that just seems, it just seems silly, you know, kind of like how a child's toy looks like fun when you were like three. And then you look at it now as an adult, you're like, sure.
00:18:55
grovehillchurch
That rattle looks so much fun. you know It almost looks like a silly thing compared to like the true depths of joy that you can experience with the Lord. So how did what does that quote make you think when it comes to, do do do you experience less emotions as you become more mature? Or is it like a mixture of those things? Or is it or is it that you should have a consistent amount of emotions?
00:19:19
Jon
I think it could be both. I think, again, you've got to realize what guides your emotions. Yes, your emotions are ah being backed with the elemental knowledge that you have at the time. And man, God's done something really good. He saved my life. And you have this faith that is at this stage right here.
00:19:43
Jon
As it grows, that emotion, maybe it's the the highs of God's done this for me, you start to see throughout scripture that faith being backed up with obviously the knowledge of God's word. I think, again, there may be emotion, there may not be. It may be looked at from a more logical side sometimes. So I think it can be both and.
00:20:10
Ridley
You know, as you were talking, Dan, I was thinking about our spiritual maturity probably mirrors a lot our physical, mental, emotional maturity as a human being. you start out young, most of your life is about emotion. It's about screaming for a food, screaming for a toy, screaming because your diaper's dirty, whatever, you know? It's all about an emotion.
00:20:32
Ridley
As you get older, you become much more logical. You become much more rational. You don't get upset about things like you used to. But then as you get towards the end of your life, when you get to be in the 70s and 80s,
00:20:45
Ridley
There's an element of emotion that's brought back to it because now you become sentimental about things that you missed along the way. And I think as spiritual beings, maybe by the time we get to the point where we're really living a sold out life for Jesus, that we've become like our elderly parents, you know, who sit around and think about the good things. And it's a logical thing that they're doing, a logical activity, they're using their brain but it causes the right kind of sentiment as they reflect on their first prom date, or when they first got their car, or the day they went off to college. There's a different kind of balance to that, and I think that just comes with the maturity that they have from life experience. Maybe there's a maturity to be gained as believers that you just can't get until you've walked the walk for a little while, you know?
00:21:40
grovehillchurch
So essentially the emotions change over time as you become richer, which makes a lot of sense. It parallels a lot of our other emotional patterns, depending on when you got saved.
00:21:49
Ridley
Right.
00:21:52
grovehillchurch
its Some people have a
Balancing Emotional Reliance in Faith
00:21:53
grovehillchurch
like deep ecstasy of like the dead and the revelation and the the washing of their sins, right?
00:22:02
grovehillchurch
But it's still something that's part of her walk in repentance, in joy, in peace.
00:22:04
Ridley
yeah no
00:22:09
grovehillchurch
And I do find that the devil will take a run at you and try to mess with you when you're not feeling those things.
00:22:14
Ridley
Mm hmm.
00:22:15
grovehillchurch
And I found that just recognize it being like, man, devil, nice try. I just got to keep going.
00:22:21
Ridley
yeah Exactly. Exactly.
00:22:22
Jon
know
00:22:22
grovehillchurch
Right.
00:22:25
Ridley
I think the devil is always going to try to push you to one extreme or the other to, you know, if he can trap you into a just a deeply, deeply philosophical, rational way of thinking. I think that's where a lot of people miss Jesus because they get so deep into that side of it. But then on the other hand, some of our Pentecostal Charismatic friends get so much caught up in the emotion. they can't They can't explain their faith. They can't defend their faith because they don't have the logic behind it. They don't understand why God had to do what he did or why Paul taught some of the things he taught. so
00:23:01
Ridley
we are very I guess a cautionary word for all of us is to be very wary of what the enemy wants to do to us and how he wants to shove us into one tra path or another to the ah loss of the other pattern.
00:23:14
grovehillchurch
So the last question to wrap it up, what are the emotions to be careful of and what are the motions emotions to be that you you should be looking for as a Christian?
00:23:26
Ridley
Oh.
00:23:28
Ridley
i'm a I'm a firm believer that God gave us every emotion. I don't think for me personally, I don't think there's any emotion that is in and of itself wrong. I think it's how it's expressed and what you do because of it. Anger is always one of those that comes to mind. I mean, you can be angry at your wife because she didn't fix you dinner, which is obviously wrong and irrational.
00:23:52
Ridley
Or you can be angry because somebody mistreated your child and you don't like that and so you want to do something about it. Those are two different things. Even words that typically carry very bad connotations with them like jealousy. Jealousy for the sake of wanting to have what somebody else doesn't have is is wrong.
00:24:12
Ridley
The Bible tells us that even God himself is a jealous God. And that's not because he wants what somebody else doesn't have, it's because he desires that we have him in the way that's beneficial to us and is healthy for us.
The Role of Music in Worship
00:24:28
Ridley
So I think there could be good expressions of just about every emotion, but you have to be ah ah very wise to keep a check on all those things. By the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:24:38
grovehillchurch
God made them all.
00:24:39
Ridley
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:41
Jon
Yeah, I would echo that same thing. And I guess I could speak to one term that I feel like is bombarded by our culture and used very much so all the time, happiness.
00:24:57
Jon
wow, how misused it is in the sense of that should be our, and I mentioned it in a couple of my responses, but we let the emotion of happiness be the guide versus the logic as you all were talking about, and man, it can get us into some trouble.
00:24:59
Ridley
Yeah.
00:25:14
Jon
Uh, in a lot of times our happiness, man, it should be way down the list of what should be guiding our decisions, major decisions.
00:25:15
Ridley
yeah
00:25:26
Jon
And I think that's the way, or that's the reason why we're in where we're at as far as marriages, as far as relationships, because, Oh, if I'm not happy.
00:25:37
Jon
I'm throwing this to the side. So yeah, there's got to be some discernment in that because there's good places for all of those emotions, even excluding happiness. So yeah, it's definitely a place we've got to have great balance in.
00:25:55
grovehillchurch
I guess I said that was going to be the last question, but I just have one more thing I've worked through is bonus bonus is around music and worship.
00:26:05
Ridley
Mm.
00:26:05
grovehillchurch
We all, ah like most of us, most normal people love music. Music is emotional.
00:26:11
Ridley
yeah
00:26:13
grovehillchurch
So. I find when I listen to worship, we like good worship, like deep scripture, like ones that's deeply rooted in scripture and truth, is is essentially somewhat of an emotional experience, if you especially if you give it enough time. Almost wondering making me wonder, I'm like, is that the reason why God made music? Is that the reason, a major point of worship is to stir our hearts back to what really matters?
00:26:42
Ridley
john you John, you're the music man.
00:26:42
grovehillchurch
Anyway, just thought I had fun with that too.
00:26:44
Ridley
so
00:26:46
Jon
i I don't know how musical I am, but I will say this, I think if there can be the gifting of men and women who write songs, whatever chords they're writing those songs in, like whatever chord accompaniment they're using,
00:27:05
Jon
Man, they do it best when they use scripture as far as songs that bring worship to God. If they can bring an awareness to scripture and what God said from the beginning,
00:27:11
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:27:18
Jon
That's great. I think we also need to beware too. And I think there's there's been many conversations throughout evangelical circles of, you know, is this song edifying to the body? Is it edifying to your spiritual walk? And I think it's good. But yeah, I do think that there's a place where those two can jive.
00:27:40
Jon
that there can be an awareness given because maybe it's a reference to scripture, but even the chords that are used, whether it's, you know, and again, this is my non-musical background. Jaden's probably going to give me some flags for this, but even in the writing of songs, whether it's notes that are high or low, I believe god that God allowed those things to exist because, again, they accompany emotions and logic.
00:28:08
Jon
to to give him glory. Again, we can use that bad, but we can also use it for good.
00:28:13
Ridley
Yeah, and there's no question that God gave us music for purposes. I mean, the book of Revelation talks about the fact that we will worship Him and worship obviously is not just
Conclusion and Encouragement
00:28:22
Ridley
music, but there's obviously courses that are saying, as part of the revelation experience, we read about, you know, there's some people, not to get into a controversial subject, because I'm not sure how I feel, but there's some people who think Lucifer was in charge of music and in heaven before he was cast out. I don't know where that necessarily comes from, but I could see where that that thinking would cause people to go, okay, well now there's two kinds of music. There are those that are used to point people to God, and there's those, that kind of music is used to draw people away from God.
00:28:53
Ridley
So music is an incredible weapon in our arsenal we're when we're wanting to fight the good fight, to get in touch with God. It does touch our emotions in places sometimes that mere words can't. So I think it's ah ah it's a powerful, powerful tool, probably a good word to put it.
00:29:14
grovehillchurch
Well, gentlemen, thanks for entertaining my my off the cuff charismatic conversation.
00:29:22
Jon
Always, man.
00:29:23
Ridley
Sounds like it was your fruitful drive from Centerville.
00:29:26
grovehillchurch
Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to many more, but thanks for everybody for listening. And again, reflect on what parts of your life need to come back to the cross.
00:29:39
grovehillchurch
where that repentance needs to have be had. And if you're in a place, in a dry spell, it's okay. If you're in a place where maybe you're like, huh, I'd like to taste some of that, that deep abiding joy of that ecstasy of like excitement about the gospel.
00:29:54
grovehillchurch
You're like, I've known it and it's cool, but I've never felt that.
00:29:57
Ridley
Mm hmm.
00:29:57
grovehillchurch
Ask the Lord. He can give it. It's a good gift.