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I'm grateful to be with you this morning. Every time I get a chance to be in the house of God with people who actually love God, it blesses my spirit. We've been in this Build series, and I pray today will be no less of a blessing.
Today I'm teaching on a subject: Out of Order. When something is out of order, it means it isn't working properly or at all. The second definition is that it isn't in the right sequence. When we understand what being in order according to God's word means, we realize that God's word sets parameters, rules, and guidelines around how we should live.
Life gets very, very hard when we try to do it out of order. When we try to do it our own way, life becomes more difficult. The old school folks would say, "You can't put the cart before the horse." When you're doing something out of order, you're only making life harder for yourself. God puts things in order because He wants to help us.
Anything without order is chaos. Anything without order is chaos—disorder and confusion. It's like a child trying to raise a parent or a student trying to instruct the teacher. Anything that is out of order is going to be chaos, and we only get our order from the word of God.
Let me preface this by saying I already know it's going to be a fight today. Some folk will not like me when I preach order. But I want to be clear: I'm not preaching my order. I am only preaching the order of God.
First Corinthians 14:33 in the New Living Translation says:
"For God is not a God of disorder."
God is not a God of disorder. Anytime we see confusion and chaos, we know it's coming from the enemy and not from God. Anytime there is a person who brings confusion and disorder everywhere they go, that person is not being led by God. You know who I'm talking about. You already have a picture in your mind.
It makes no sense that we claim to be living for the same God when the God I read about says He is not a God of disorder, yet you always want to break the rules, do it your way, question order, question structure, and question leadership. That is a sign that the Holy Spirit is not leading you.
But watch this: He is a God of peace. If you're being led by God, peace ought to follow you. If you're being led by God, anytime you step into a situation, it ought to become peaceful. Even if there was craziness, chaos, and confusion before you got there, now that you are there, you should be called the peace to the storm, not the agitator to the storm.
If your presence is causing confusion and disorder, you need to pray about what you bring with your presence.
In the same chapter, verse 40 says:
"Let all things be done decently and in order."
First, you have to be decent. Decent is respect. Decent is honoring other people. Decent means you don't always have to push your way. Decent means you can honor other people's opinions and perspectives. Decent means I'm not just thinking about myself when I walk in the building. Decent means I know how to honor God's church and not look crazy. Decent means I know how to respect everybody, including myself.
But the main part is and in order. Things have to be done in order. God set up order for a reason. Without order, we will always have fights, confusion, and this opinion versus that opinion. But we have to remind ourselves: What does the word of God say? Because His word is our order.
Paul instructs his young mentee Titus about setting things in order. In Titus 1:5:
"The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town as I directed you."
Paul is reminding Titus: "I didn't leave you there to have a good time. The reason I left you in Crete was because there needed to be order." We have to make sure we are always focusing on what is the order.
God does not call you the body of Christ. When you go through the Bible, there is no one person that is the body of Christ. You individually can never be the body of Christ. You are just one blood cell. We together are the body of Christ. And in order for us to be the body, the joints and ligaments and bones have to move together.
You can't do your own thing and I do my own thing and we still say we represent Jesus. No. The Bible says we have to be unified as one. Let them be in one mind, one spirit, one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one redemption, one salvation. All of our minds have to be unified as one.
In order for there to be unity, there has to be order. Which means that everybody in the building has to know we follow the same rules. We follow the same rules. We do things a certain way here.
We live in a society that has decided it no longer wants God's order. In fact, it treats God's order as if it is not true, as if it is archaic and illegitimate. But as believers, we understand that the word of God is where we stand. Anything that goes outside of His word, we have to ask, "God, is this even you at all?"
When we find ourselves in the word, the word is not always politically correct. But that's okay. I appreciate being a prophet and not a politician. Politicians have to consider both sides. Prophets consider God's word. That is it.
Let's look at 1 Corinthians 11:3:
"But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."
First, the head of every man is Christ. No matter how hardheaded a man tries to pretend to be, you have a daddy. When a man is not submitted to God, he is a dangerous leader. Nothing and no one can check a man who is not submitted.
Anytime you have to be led by a man who isn't submitted to God, you are in danger. Did you ever read the story of Jonah? Everybody with Jonah lost everything. Why? Because they decided to ride with a man who wasn't submitted to God. Anytime you ride with a man who isn't submitted to God, you are in danger. Every storm aimed for him will also hit you.
Women, if you have a husband or partner who isn't submitted to God, I'm asking you to pray. How can a man lead you when he can't properly lead himself? It's going to be a dangerous road.
Some men say, "Pastor, I'm good. I can lead myself." But how can you lead yourself when you don't know where you're going? You don't even know what the next 5 to 10 years of your life look like. Maybe you think you know where you're going. Okay, but do you really know how to get there? If you did, you would have been a billionaire by now and own houses on the lakefront. But you don't know where you're going, so how can you lead yourself?
You need to be led by Christ. Submitting your life to God makes you safe to be a leader. When you're submitted to God, people know they don't have to check you. You have a superior being who checks you. Even when you get out of line, the one you're submitted to will check you in your private time. Even when you're not walking with grace, love, and mercy, the one you're submitted to will convict you and remind you that the wife is the weaker vessel and you need to treat her gently. But this only happens when a man is submitted to God.
Now to my sisters: The head of the woman is the man. In the war for political equality, we have missed the sacredness of this text because we fight so hard against it. This does not suggest that the woman is less than man. She holds a different position than the man, not a lower position—a different position based on order.
When God set up order in the world, He established the man as the head and the wife as the one who submits to the husband. This is why when a woman gets married, they say, "I pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. [male last name]." This is why you traditionally take his last name—because you're saying, "I understand that he is the head."
If he is the head, he gets attacked before I get attacked. He's in war before I'm in war. He's being besieged before I'm being besieged. So let me respect the fact that somebody has to die. The head has to die first.
The man is the leader not just in thought and emotion, but he is the leader within God's order. God spoke this prophetically from the beginning of time: He revealed that women were going to struggle with this order. God said it's in your Bible. In Genesis, God said, "When I set this in order, they are going to fight with this order. They aren't going to like this. It's going to be a problem in their spirit."
Look at Genesis 3:16:
"To the woman he said, 'I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy; in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.'"
You see how convicted you felt when I read that verse? God prophetically said: I knew that there's an issue with order. The woman is going to hear this and still have a desire to control her husband.
Do you want to know why it's been a fight in your home? It's because when you're trying to get him to do what you want him to do, it's always going to be a fight, because you can never manipulate the head. You're making life harder than it has to be.
Do you want to know how to get the head in check? You go to who he's submitted to. God is the one who checks the man. When you're having an issue with your husband, go to his supervisor. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:7 that God will hinder the prayers of a man—stop responding to his requests—when he does not honor his wife as the weaker vessel.
But wife, you're going to keep causing fights if you don't honor him as the head. This is the order of God.
My main text is Nehemiah 7:1:
"After the wall had been rebuilt, I had set the doors in place and the gatekeepers, the musicians, and the Levites were appointed."
Here's what's critical: After the wall was done, that didn't mean the assignment was finished. You ever seen somebody do one thing and think they're done, and God says, 'No, no, no. That's just the beginning.' You started your ministry. You thought that was it. You have 25 years of ministry ahead of you. That was just the beginning.
There were four things that needed to happen:
Doors mark where people enter and where they exit. This shows you that you have to set rules for where people can enter your life and where they have to exit. You want to know why people stay connected to you too long? Because you don't have any rules around who comes in and when it's time for them to exit.
Once you start to set rules in place, people will know: the moment you start to move like this, there's the door. The moment you start to move like that, I'm giving you an exit because I have a standard and a moral code for the way that I move. If you don't match that moral code, there is always a door for you to get off my boat.
Some people don't know how to be with you and how to support you because you don't show them where they can come in. You expect people just to know when to show up, but people don't move like that. You have to show them the door—not just when it's time to leave, but when it's time to come in. When I show you a door, I'm showing you: this is where I'm expecting you to show up.
You also have to show the door to those who want to come in. Many of you struggle here. When a person says, "I want to partner with you," we need to do a better job of showing how. How does a person partner with you? How do they become your friend? Maybe support isn't always monetary. Sometimes we just need folks to be real when we're low in our lives. But you have to show them the door.
Now, this is critical. The gatekeepers controlled when the doors opened. Yes, the doors were there, but a gatekeeper was there to control them. Most of us only hear the term "gatekeeping" and think it's negative. But it's always the people outside the gate saying that. The people outside the gate think the gate should be open for everybody. But gatekeepers understand it's dangerous to let everybody inside this gate.
You have to know: what's your reason for coming in? Do you have the qualities and the character to come on this side of the gate? Any place that has structure has to have gatekeepers. Otherwise people would think they can come to the top and lead even though they're not ready.
Your Bible talks about this. It says don't put a novice in position. Don't put somebody who thinks they should be leading in a position just because they think they should be leading. Do they have the qualities of being able to lead other people? Gatekeepers are necessary. You have to have people saying we control who comes in and at what times. If not, there will be a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing coming in.
Don't you realize that not everybody who tries to serve is really trying to serve? Some people serve to take. Some people serve to spy. Some people serve to lie. Some people serve for different reasons. You need gatekeepers.
None of you call locking your doors at home "gatekeeping" because you understand that everybody doesn't belong in here. Sometimes you need to look at your life and say, "Have I locked the gates? Am I checking who's coming in and who's going out?" Even if you've never checked them before, maybe you need to check them now. And maybe you checked them before, but people who were good last year aren't always good this year.
Why would that even matter? You were building a wall—why talk about choosing musicians? Now it's critical to understand how much music matters.
Music has the power to control your mood and your emotions. Think about movies. Directors understand that it's not the camera action that makes people nervous. It's the sound. You get nervous when you hear certain sounds because you know something is about to happen.
Satan knew this. Satan used to be an angel who was over music, and he understood that music was so powerful. Isn't it crazy why the number one most demonic industry in the world is the music industry? Because he understood that through music, you can control the way people feel and the way they think.
This isn't just my opinion. Even science has confirmed it. There's a thing called music therapy, and it can improve negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as lack of motivation and reclusiveness and isolation. They will put a person in a room with no words or anything, and they've learned that if you play the right chords, you can change the way a person feels. Isn't this biblical? Doesn't it sound like David playing for Saul when he was battling with a demonic spirit? Because music has the power to affect your emotions and your feelings.
If music can improve isolation, can't it also worsen isolation? If music can improve lack of motivation, can't it also create a lack of motivation? Here's something deeper: If music kept a demon off of Saul, can't music also call demons in?
This is why it was critical when they chose musicians. It's the reason why musicians in the church are under such demonic attack. It's why it's hard to find musicians that actually love Jesus. Because the enemy knows: I don't even have to go after the people if I can get to the ones playing the music over them.
Your Bible says God sings songs over you. Why would God sing over you when He can talk? Because He understands music does something to the way He created you. When He sings over you, your body resonates with it. Your emotions resonate with it. It's the reason you cry when you sing to the Lord—because it activates a different part of your being.
Nehemiah was selective with the preachers just like you and I should be. At least I think we should know that, because it seems like only in this generation do we allow anybody to be our preacher. Anybody with enough followers on TikTok, we'll listen. Enough followers on Instagram and if everybody else is listening to them, then we'll listen too.
But ask yourself: Do they actually read the Bible? Do you ever check what scriptures they use to confirm the words they're preaching? Or is it only about what makes you feel good? The Bible said in the last days, people won't endure sound doctrine. Which means that sometimes the word of God shouldn't make you feel good. Sometimes the word of God should make you feel a little frustrated. It should make you say, "Well, I don't necessarily agree with that." Good, because it's exposing the fact that you've been living by rules that aren't God's rules.
You have to make a choice on who the trusted voices in your life are going to be. This is what they did. They went out and they chose the preachers. They chose the speakers over their lives.
Let me ask you four questions to check yourself:
Number One: Are the doors clearly marked in your life? Are they marked for the people who have been with you but no longer agree with where your life is going? You need to be able to show them the door.
I'm sort of like Joshua in Joshua 24:15: "Whether you want to serve the god of this world or the God of the people of Israel, do that. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." You have to be able to show people the door. Show them when to leave. Let them leave whenever they want to. Ain't nobody holding them here. They're nobody's prisoner.
But you also have to be able to show the door to those who want to come in. Many of you struggle here. When a person says, "I want to partner with you," you need to show them how. How does a person partner with you? How do they become your friend? See, people support your business, but you had to show them how to support your business. Not everybody is going to give money to your business. Maybe they could come to the grand opening, or maybe support you in a smaller way. It's not always monetary support that we need. Sometimes we just need folks to be real when we're low in our lives.
Number Two: Are you a gatekeeper? Are you protecting what's in? It's not just about keeping people out. It's about protecting what's in. None of you call locking your doors at home gatekeeping because you understand that everybody doesn't belong in here. Sometimes you need to look at your life and say, "Have I locked the gates? Am I checking who's coming in and who's going out?"
Even if you've never checked them before, you might need to check them now. And maybe you checked them before, but people who were good last year aren't always good this year.
Number Three: What kind of music are you playing into your spirit? Challenge yourself. I'm telling you right now, when God starts to clean your spirit, there'll be certain music playing and it just won't agree with you. You'll have to try to force yourself to listen to it because it doesn't agree.
When I got saved, a lot of rap just didn't make sense to me anymore. There's only so much about drugs I can rap about, so much flossing I can listen to, so many women you're sleeping with—that becomes exhausting. At some point you're like: this does not agree with my spirit. I need something different. Music matters.
If music can sing something good into you, it can also sing something bad into you. You don't want to be sad and listen to sad music. It'll have you crying a river all night because it strengthens bad emotions. You have to be selective of what you put in your spirit.
Number Four: Who's going to be the voice in your life? Who are the preachers? Who are the Levites? Who are the voices that you trust? Every voice isn't safe. Every voice isn't coming from an unbiased place. Sometimes voices have biases and opinions. I've learned that sometimes people are preaching out of their issue with another person.
Now hear me: I believe you can use experience. I do believe you should use your experience. But your experience cannot dictate the word of God. The word of God dictates your experience.
Make sure whoever you're allowing to speak over you doesn't need you to pump up their identity. Make sure they're speaking over you from a place of wanting to see God win in you.
Father, my prayer is this, Lord God, that You can check us and challenge us whenever there is something out of order. That You can check us and challenge us. My prayer is that we would only do what Your word declares we should do.
If there's something out of order in our lives that's considered chaos in Your book, I pray God that we would remove the chaos, the confusion, and the division that tries to come into the church and even specifically this one. I pray over this church. I pray over this portion of the body of Christ. And I speak God that let all things be done decently and in order, in Jesus' name we pray. God's people say it: Amen.
I'm going to preach the second half next Sunday. There's a whole lot more to that.
If you want to give your life to Christ, this is your opportunity. If you want to just say yes, if you never got a chance to say yes, you can surrender to Him. That's number one.
Number two, if you're looking for a church home and you want this church to be your church home, you can come forward at this time. Ain't going to make you say nothing. I just want to get a chance to love on you and welcome you and tell you: come on to the body of Christ.
I'm grateful to be with you this morning. Every time I get a chance to be in the house of God with people who actually love God, it blesses my spirit. We've been in this Build series, and I pray today will be no less of a blessing.
Today I'm teaching on a subject: Out of Order. When something is out of order, it means it isn't working properly or at all. The second definition is that it isn't in the right sequence. When we understand what being in order according to God's word means, we realize that God's word sets parameters, rules, and guidelines around how we should live.
Life gets very, very hard when we try to do it out of order. When we try to do it our own way, life becomes more difficult. The old school folks would say, "You can't put the cart before the horse." When you're doing something out of order, you're only making life harder for yourself. God puts things in order because He wants to help us.
Anything without order is chaos. Anything without order is chaos—disorder and confusion. It's like a child trying to raise a parent or a student trying to instruct the teacher. Anything that is out of order is going to be chaos, and we only get our order from the word of God.
Let me preface this by saying I already know it's going to be a fight today. Some folk will not like me when I preach order. But I want to be clear: I'm not preaching my order. I am only preaching the order of God.
First Corinthians 14:33 in the New Living Translation says:
"For God is not a God of disorder."
God is not a God of disorder. Anytime we see confusion and chaos, we know it's coming from the enemy and not from God. Anytime there is a person who brings confusion and disorder everywhere they go, that person is not being led by God. You know who I'm talking about. You already have a picture in your mind.
It makes no sense that we claim to be living for the same God when the God I read about says He is not a God of disorder, yet you always want to break the rules, do it your way, question order, question structure, and question leadership. That is a sign that the Holy Spirit is not leading you.
But watch this: He is a God of peace. If you're being led by God, peace ought to follow you. If you're being led by God, anytime you step into a situation, it ought to become peaceful. Even if there was craziness, chaos, and confusion before you got there, now that you are there, you should be called the peace to the storm, not the agitator to the storm.
If your presence is causing confusion and disorder, you need to pray about what you bring with your presence.
In the same chapter, verse 40 says:
"Let all things be done decently and in order."
First, you have to be decent. Decent is respect. Decent is honoring other people. Decent means you don't always have to push your way. Decent means you can honor other people's opinions and perspectives. Decent means I'm not just thinking about myself when I walk in the building. Decent means I know how to honor God's church and not look crazy. Decent means I know how to respect everybody, including myself.
But the main part is and in order. Things have to be done in order. God set up order for a reason. Without order, we will always have fights, confusion, and this opinion versus that opinion. But we have to remind ourselves: What does the word of God say? Because His word is our order.
Paul instructs his young mentee Titus about setting things in order. In Titus 1:5:
"The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town as I directed you."
Paul is reminding Titus: "I didn't leave you there to have a good time. The reason I left you in Crete was because there needed to be order." We have to make sure we are always focusing on what is the order.
God does not call you the body of Christ. When you go through the Bible, there is no one person that is the body of Christ. You individually can never be the body of Christ. You are just one blood cell. We together are the body of Christ. And in order for us to be the body, the joints and ligaments and bones have to move together.
You can't do your own thing and I do my own thing and we still say we represent Jesus. No. The Bible says we have to be unified as one. Let them be in one mind, one spirit, one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one redemption, one salvation. All of our minds have to be unified as one.
In order for there to be unity, there has to be order. Which means that everybody in the building has to know we follow the same rules. We follow the same rules. We do things a certain way here.
We live in a society that has decided it no longer wants God's order. In fact, it treats God's order as if it is not true, as if it is archaic and illegitimate. But as believers, we understand that the word of God is where we stand. Anything that goes outside of His word, we have to ask, "God, is this even you at all?"
When we find ourselves in the word, the word is not always politically correct. But that's okay. I appreciate being a prophet and not a politician. Politicians have to consider both sides. Prophets consider God's word. That is it.
Let's look at 1 Corinthians 11:3:
"But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."
First, the head of every man is Christ. No matter how hardheaded a man tries to pretend to be, you have a daddy. When a man is not submitted to God, he is a dangerous leader. Nothing and no one can check a man who is not submitted.
Anytime you have to be led by a man who isn't submitted to God, you are in danger. Did you ever read the story of Jonah? Everybody with Jonah lost everything. Why? Because they decided to ride with a man who wasn't submitted to God. Anytime you ride with a man who isn't submitted to God, you are in danger. Every storm aimed for him will also hit you.
Women, if you have a husband or partner who isn't submitted to God, I'm asking you to pray. How can a man lead you when he can't properly lead himself? It's going to be a dangerous road.
Some men say, "Pastor, I'm good. I can lead myself." But how can you lead yourself when you don't know where you're going? You don't even know what the next 5 to 10 years of your life look like. Maybe you think you know where you're going. Okay, but do you really know how to get there? If you did, you would have been a billionaire by now and own houses on the lakefront. But you don't know where you're going, so how can you lead yourself?
You need to be led by Christ. Submitting your life to God makes you safe to be a leader. When you're submitted to God, people know they don't have to check you. You have a superior being who checks you. Even when you get out of line, the one you're submitted to will check you in your private time. Even when you're not walking with grace, love, and mercy, the one you're submitted to will convict you and remind you that the wife is the weaker vessel and you need to treat her gently. But this only happens when a man is submitted to God.
Now to my sisters: The head of the woman is the man. In the war for political equality, we have missed the sacredness of this text because we fight so hard against it. This does not suggest that the woman is less than man. She holds a different position than the man, not a lower position—a different position based on order.
When God set up order in the world, He established the man as the head and the wife as the one who submits to the husband. This is why when a woman gets married, they say, "I pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. [male last name]." This is why you traditionally take his last name—because you're saying, "I understand that he is the head."
If he is the head, he gets attacked before I get attacked. He's in war before I'm in war. He's being besieged before I'm being besieged. So let me respect the fact that somebody has to die. The head has to die first.
The man is the leader not just in thought and emotion, but he is the leader within God's order. God spoke this prophetically from the beginning of time: He revealed that women were going to struggle with this order. God said it's in your Bible. In Genesis, God said, "When I set this in order, they are going to fight with this order. They aren't going to like this. It's going to be a problem in their spirit."
Look at Genesis 3:16:
"To the woman he said, 'I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy; in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.'"
You see how convicted you felt when I read that verse? God prophetically said: I knew that there's an issue with order. The woman is going to hear this and still have a desire to control her husband.
Do you want to know why it's been a fight in your home? It's because when you're trying to get him to do what you want him to do, it's always going to be a fight, because you can never manipulate the head. You're making life harder than it has to be.
Do you want to know how to get the head in check? You go to who he's submitted to. God is the one who checks the man. When you're having an issue with your husband, go to his supervisor. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:7 that God will hinder the prayers of a man—stop responding to his requests—when he does not honor his wife as the weaker vessel.
But wife, you're going to keep causing fights if you don't honor him as the head. This is the order of God.
My main text is Nehemiah 7:1:
"After the wall had been rebuilt, I had set the doors in place and the gatekeepers, the musicians, and the Levites were appointed."
Here's what's critical: After the wall was done, that didn't mean the assignment was finished. You ever seen somebody do one thing and think they're done, and God says, 'No, no, no. That's just the beginning.' You started your ministry. You thought that was it. You have 25 years of ministry ahead of you. That was just the beginning.
There were four things that needed to happen:
Doors mark where people enter and where they exit. This shows you that you have to set rules for where people can enter your life and where they have to exit. You want to know why people stay connected to you too long? Because you don't have any rules around who comes in and when it's time for them to exit.
Once you start to set rules in place, people will know: the moment you start to move like this, there's the door. The moment you start to move like that, I'm giving you an exit because I have a standard and a moral code for the way that I move. If you don't match that moral code, there is always a door for you to get off my boat.
Some people don't know how to be with you and how to support you because you don't show them where they can come in. You expect people just to know when to show up, but people don't move like that. You have to show them the door—not just when it's time to leave, but when it's time to come in. When I show you a door, I'm showing you: this is where I'm expecting you to show up.
You also have to show the door to those who want to come in. Many of you struggle here. When a person says, "I want to partner with you," we need to do a better job of showing how. How does a person partner with you? How do they become your friend? Maybe support isn't always monetary. Sometimes we just need folks to be real when we're low in our lives. But you have to show them the door.
Now, this is critical. The gatekeepers controlled when the doors opened. Yes, the doors were there, but a gatekeeper was there to control them. Most of us only hear the term "gatekeeping" and think it's negative. But it's always the people outside the gate saying that. The people outside the gate think the gate should be open for everybody. But gatekeepers understand it's dangerous to let everybody inside this gate.
You have to know: what's your reason for coming in? Do you have the qualities and the character to come on this side of the gate? Any place that has structure has to have gatekeepers. Otherwise people would think they can come to the top and lead even though they're not ready.
Your Bible talks about this. It says don't put a novice in position. Don't put somebody who thinks they should be leading in a position just because they think they should be leading. Do they have the qualities of being able to lead other people? Gatekeepers are necessary. You have to have people saying we control who comes in and at what times. If not, there will be a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing coming in.
Don't you realize that not everybody who tries to serve is really trying to serve? Some people serve to take. Some people serve to spy. Some people serve to lie. Some people serve for different reasons. You need gatekeepers.
None of you call locking your doors at home "gatekeeping" because you understand that everybody doesn't belong in here. Sometimes you need to look at your life and say, "Have I locked the gates? Am I checking who's coming in and who's going out?" Even if you've never checked them before, maybe you need to check them now. And maybe you checked them before, but people who were good last year aren't always good this year.
Why would that even matter? You were building a wall—why talk about choosing musicians? Now it's critical to understand how much music matters.
Music has the power to control your mood and your emotions. Think about movies. Directors understand that it's not the camera action that makes people nervous. It's the sound. You get nervous when you hear certain sounds because you know something is about to happen.
Satan knew this. Satan used to be an angel who was over music, and he understood that music was so powerful. Isn't it crazy why the number one most demonic industry in the world is the music industry? Because he understood that through music, you can control the way people feel and the way they think.
This isn't just my opinion. Even science has confirmed it. There's a thing called music therapy, and it can improve negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as lack of motivation and reclusiveness and isolation. They will put a person in a room with no words or anything, and they've learned that if you play the right chords, you can change the way a person feels. Isn't this biblical? Doesn't it sound like David playing for Saul when he was battling with a demonic spirit? Because music has the power to affect your emotions and your feelings.
If music can improve isolation, can't it also worsen isolation? If music can improve lack of motivation, can't it also create a lack of motivation? Here's something deeper: If music kept a demon off of Saul, can't music also call demons in?
This is why it was critical when they chose musicians. It's the reason why musicians in the church are under such demonic attack. It's why it's hard to find musicians that actually love Jesus. Because the enemy knows: I don't even have to go after the people if I can get to the ones playing the music over them.
Your Bible says God sings songs over you. Why would God sing over you when He can talk? Because He understands music does something to the way He created you. When He sings over you, your body resonates with it. Your emotions resonate with it. It's the reason you cry when you sing to the Lord—because it activates a different part of your being.
Nehemiah was selective with the preachers just like you and I should be. At least I think we should know that, because it seems like only in this generation do we allow anybody to be our preacher. Anybody with enough followers on TikTok, we'll listen. Enough followers on Instagram and if everybody else is listening to them, then we'll listen too.
But ask yourself: Do they actually read the Bible? Do you ever check what scriptures they use to confirm the words they're preaching? Or is it only about what makes you feel good? The Bible said in the last days, people won't endure sound doctrine. Which means that sometimes the word of God shouldn't make you feel good. Sometimes the word of God should make you feel a little frustrated. It should make you say, "Well, I don't necessarily agree with that." Good, because it's exposing the fact that you've been living by rules that aren't God's rules.
You have to make a choice on who the trusted voices in your life are going to be. This is what they did. They went out and they chose the preachers. They chose the speakers over their lives.
Let me ask you four questions to check yourself:
Number One: Are the doors clearly marked in your life? Are they marked for the people who have been with you but no longer agree with where your life is going? You need to be able to show them the door.
I'm sort of like Joshua in Joshua 24:15: "Whether you want to serve the god of this world or the God of the people of Israel, do that. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." You have to be able to show people the door. Show them when to leave. Let them leave whenever they want to. Ain't nobody holding them here. They're nobody's prisoner.
But you also have to be able to show the door to those who want to come in. Many of you struggle here. When a person says, "I want to partner with you," you need to show them how. How does a person partner with you? How do they become your friend? See, people support your business, but you had to show them how to support your business. Not everybody is going to give money to your business. Maybe they could come to the grand opening, or maybe support you in a smaller way. It's not always monetary support that we need. Sometimes we just need folks to be real when we're low in our lives.
Number Two: Are you a gatekeeper? Are you protecting what's in? It's not just about keeping people out. It's about protecting what's in. None of you call locking your doors at home gatekeeping because you understand that everybody doesn't belong in here. Sometimes you need to look at your life and say, "Have I locked the gates? Am I checking who's coming in and who's going out?"
Even if you've never checked them before, you might need to check them now. And maybe you checked them before, but people who were good last year aren't always good this year.
Number Three: What kind of music are you playing into your spirit? Challenge yourself. I'm telling you right now, when God starts to clean your spirit, there'll be certain music playing and it just won't agree with you. You'll have to try to force yourself to listen to it because it doesn't agree.
When I got saved, a lot of rap just didn't make sense to me anymore. There's only so much about drugs I can rap about, so much flossing I can listen to, so many women you're sleeping with—that becomes exhausting. At some point you're like: this does not agree with my spirit. I need something different. Music matters.
If music can sing something good into you, it can also sing something bad into you. You don't want to be sad and listen to sad music. It'll have you crying a river all night because it strengthens bad emotions. You have to be selective of what you put in your spirit.
Number Four: Who's going to be the voice in your life? Who are the preachers? Who are the Levites? Who are the voices that you trust? Every voice isn't safe. Every voice isn't coming from an unbiased place. Sometimes voices have biases and opinions. I've learned that sometimes people are preaching out of their issue with another person.
Now hear me: I believe you can use experience. I do believe you should use your experience. But your experience cannot dictate the word of God. The word of God dictates your experience.
Make sure whoever you're allowing to speak over you doesn't need you to pump up their identity. Make sure they're speaking over you from a place of wanting to see God win in you.
Father, my prayer is this, Lord God, that You can check us and challenge us whenever there is something out of order. That You can check us and challenge us. My prayer is that we would only do what Your word declares we should do.
If there's something out of order in our lives that's considered chaos in Your book, I pray God that we would remove the chaos, the confusion, and the division that tries to come into the church and even specifically this one. I pray over this church. I pray over this portion of the body of Christ. And I speak God that let all things be done decently and in order, in Jesus' name we pray. God's people say it: Amen.
I'm going to preach the second half next Sunday. There's a whole lot more to that.
If you want to give your life to Christ, this is your opportunity. If you want to just say yes, if you never got a chance to say yes, you can surrender to Him. That's number one.
Number two, if you're looking for a church home and you want this church to be your church home, you can come forward at this time. Ain't going to make you say nothing. I just want to get a chance to love on you and welcome you and tell you: come on to the body of Christ.
