• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

The Most Powerful Christian Song I Had Never Heard

Mark Corbett

Mark Corbett

Active Member
Keep%2BYourselves%2Bfrom%2BIdols.jpg


“Tearing Down Your Idols” is the theme God put on my heart for this year’s revival services at the church I serve. I was looking for a song that captured the theme. Hope and I looked for over an hour before we ran across this song. Perhaps some of you have heard it. I never had. It’s powerful. Here it is:


Listen to it again. Let the words sink in. Make it a prayer.

The message of the song is one of the major themes woven throughout the Bible.

God created us to be HIS people. Our minds were made so we could know Him. Our ears are crafted to listen to His voice. Our hearts are intended to love Him above all others.

But we have gone astray. We have been seduced by false lovers. We have listened to the world’s lies. We crave other things more than we desire our Creator. We worship idols.

What are your idols?

Where do you run to find relief and shelter? To alcohol, nicotine, opioids, or other drugs? To TV? Porn? Gossip? Shopping? Comfort food? If the answer isn’t God, you’ve got an idol.

What captures your imagination? What do you dream about getting? Money? Sex? Power? Revenge? If the answer isn’t God you’ve got an idol.

What is it that you can’t live without? Your family? Your safety? Your comfort? Your bank account? Your position? Your pride? If the answer isn’t God, you’ve got an idol.

What drives your priorities? What determines how you spend your minutes, days, and years? A comfortable retirement? More money? Seeking pleasure? If the answer isn’t God, you’ve got an idol.

What does the Bible tell us we should do with our idols? Coddle them? Perhaps try to wean ourselves gently off them? No! The great men of God tore down their idols (Judges 6:25); they burned them (2 Kings 23:4); they ground them to dust (2 Kings 23:6); they crushed and destroyed them (2 Kings 23:12).

Don’t expect getting rid of your idols to be quick or easy. Idols are popular. Idols are adored. Idols have been passed down for generations. The idols and the idol worshippers will fight to keep their illegitimate place in your heart.

So get down on your knees. Seek God’s grace and power and strength. Pull down the idols. Don’t give up. Expect a long war. When you’re knocked down, cry out to God and get back up. Get help from your brothers and sisters in Christ. Walk forward, seek Christian counsel, get prayed for, get radical, do whatever it takes, and keep at it. Gouge out your eye (Matthew 5:29). Cut off your hand (Matthew 5:30). Crucify your desires (Galatians 5:24). Put them to death (Colossians 3:5).

Will it be worth it? What will you get in place of all your powerless, deceiving, empty, life-draining idols?

Jesus.​

I don’t mean you get saved by getting rid of your idols. We get saved by grace through faith in Christ. I mean that as we get rid of idols our hearts become free to focus more fully on Christ. Our walk with Him is closer. We are filled and empowered by His Holy Spirit. He gives us new ministries. He bears more fruit through us. We have more joy, faithfulness, goodness, peace, and self-control. His love shines through us more brightly. We are blessed and everyone around us is blessed. Getting rid of idols is hard, painful, and difficult work. Is it worth it? Oh, yeah.

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
(1 John 5:20-21 NIV)​

This was originally a post on my blog.
 
Mark Corbett

Mark Corbett

Active Member
xfrodobagginsx said:
Yes this exact video is one of the songs I had in mind. Love it! I am a Worship Leader and in my opinion, he is the greatest Worship Leader in the world.
Click to expand...

May God bless your ministry! I believe that God often works through the praise and songs in a service every bit as much, and sometimes more, than through the sermon. I can say that, since I'm the one who gives the sermon! Music is a powerful gift and a powerful way to experience and absorb God's truth.
 
Mark Corbett

Mark Corbett

Active Member
TCassidy said:
I noticed the fog machine, therefore I must not be as spiritual as you?
Click to expand...

I didn't say that. But I do wish you were not distracted by the fog machine from enjoying and experiencing the worship. I don't know that happened, but since your comment was about the fog machine and did not mention anything positive about the worship, I fear that may be the case. And I especially wish if you are distracted that you would keep it to yourself and not potentially distract others.
 
TCassidy

TCassidy

Late-Administator Emeritus
Administrator
Mark Corbett said:
I didn't say that. But I do wish you were not distracted by the fog machine from enjoying and experiencing the worship. I don't know that happened, but since your comment was about the fog machine and did not mention anything positive about the worship, I fear that may be the case. And I especially wish if you are distracted that you would keep it to yourself and not potentially distract others.
Click to expand...
Just as I thought.
 
John of Japan

John of Japan

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Americans have so many wrong ideas about idols and about worship. I'm still disappointed in American "Churchianity" after 3 years back in the States. I lived for 33 years, give or take, in a land where real idolatry occurred all over the place, with people bowing down to statues of Buddha, Shinto priests blessing new construction jobs, idolatrous festivals, etc. The typical American Christian has no idea what idolatry or worship, either one, are. I see that ignorance on this thread, too.

1. There are two main words for "worship" in the NT: latrueo (worship/serve) and proskuneo (bow down to someone or something). So watching someone else sing is not worship, it's entertainment.
2. Biblically, idolatry is bowing down to and serving a false god, a statue or a system of religion God did not ordain.
3. The only verse to indicate idolatry is something other than what I have listed here is Col. 3:5, where idolatry is a metaphor for covetousness. In other words, other than coveting something so that it becomes what you serve, many other things listed on this thread are not idolatry, sinful as they are.
4. To characterize all of those useless things folk do as idolatry is trivializing the heinous sin of worshiping other gods. And to claim that what happens in most churches nowadays is worship is a huge misunderstanding of what NT worship actually is.

Folks, don't go to a musician or a "worship leader" (often "entertainment leader") to learn what worship and idolatry are. Go to the Bible.
 
John of Japan

John of Japan

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Mark Corbett said:
I didn't even notice the fog. I was caught up in the worship and the people worshiping.
Click to expand...
Biblically speaking, I didn't see anyone worshiping except the musicians, and they were only worshiping if they were serving God from the heart. Simply listening to and watching a musician is not worship. You don't find that in the Bible. And watching a musician on a Youtube video is really far away from true worship.
 
Mark Corbett

Mark Corbett

Active Member
John of Japan said:
Biblically speaking, I didn't see anyone worshiping except the musicians, and they were only worshiping if they were serving God from the heart. Simply listening to and watching a musician is not worship. You don't find that in the Bible. And watching a musician on a Youtube video is really far away from true worship.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the video with Michael W. Smith?
 
Mark Corbett

Mark Corbett

Active Member
John of Japan said:
Funny, I thought this was a debate forum. But now you are enjoined not to distract others from the ostensible worship going on in a Youtube video. Welcome to Churchianity. :Biggrin
Click to expand...

Fair enough. He can bring up the fog machine. But it wasn't clear to me what he wanted to debate. If he wants to debate the use of fog machines in worship, he's free to do so. I don't have much of an opinion on that one.
 
John of Japan

John of Japan

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Mark Corbett said:
Are you referring to the video with Michael W. Smith?
Click to expand...
Yes, since that's the one you can see people in. But unfortunately, the song you posted had no mention of Jesus, our Savior. A good song in church ought to send people out to serve Christ in obedience to the Great Commission. Church is not for worship--that concept is not in the NT. Church is where we should be trained and inspired to serve Christ, especially by reaching the world for Him (Eph. 4:11-13).

Catch you later if you want to discuss. I have to go teach Advanced Missions 1, with 8 young people totally sold out to Christ who want to reach the world for Christ and fulfill the Great Commission.
 
John of Japan

John of Japan

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Mark Corbett said:
Fair enough. He can bring up the fog machine. But it wasn't clear to me what he wanted to debate. If he wants to debate the use of fog machines in worship, he's free to do so. I don't have much of an opinion on that one.
Click to expand...
Fog machines, and fancy lights, and swaying with the music, are all instruments of entertainment, not worship. I think Tom was pointing that out in his own inimitable way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top