"They're Playing Our Song" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 06.14.26

"They're Playing Our Song" | Rev. Dr. Donovan Drake preaching | 06.14.26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

They're playing our song. Our song. We have our name on it. Don't mess with it. That's a song that was played when we first met. It is a song of our romance. When I hear that song, I'm 25 years old again. Come on, babe. Let's dance. They're playing our song. Or hey, they're playing our song. Who do they think they are? I remember the man in my first congregation who liked the song Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow until it became associated with the Clinton campaign. We get tied to our songs. Westminster has a few songs. Eagle's Wings. I didn't really know that song until I came here. I know that song now. It's one of our songs. Here I am, Lord, with the seniors up in the balcony, hardly a dry eye in the house. That's one of our songs. We just sang the tune, Old Hundreds. That's the tune. I grew up with that tune. It was the doxology. When I say the doxology, I mean the doxology. And some of you know this because sometime during the year we sing the doxology at Westminster, and what I hear is finally, hey, we finally sang the doxology. We used to sing it all the time in this church, all the time. And then somebody changed it. Did you change it? We don't need to be changing things. Listen, it's praise God from whom all blessings flow. It's the way the Almighty God intended it. So I think it's a good time to go over the definition of the word doxology. The study of praise. But I know. I know, I know we get passionate about our song. It used to be our song. It got us through the good times, it got us through the hard times. I remember landing in Philadelphia and taking a train up to Princeton. I arrived at the Trenton New Jersey train station to switch from the Penn Station to the New Jersey transit line. And suddenly in the station there were police everywhere, sirens and lights, and out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a yellow cab on the street with my heart racing. I jumped in and I said, Princeton, please. And the driver didn't speak a lick of English. But when my heart settled down, I could hear the music on his radio. It was a Christian station. It's really not my music. But on that night at that time, it was nice to know that I was not alone. There in the car, the driver and I and Jesus, for where two or more are gathered in my name. I am there. They're playing our song. It holds us together. I think of Paul's words in Ephesians, he says to us, Sing songs and spiritual songs to one another. Sing songs and spiritual songs to one another. We should practice that. It's hard to have an argument after you saying Great is thy faithfulness. Difficult to have a dispute after singing how great thou art. Got a punk bone to pick with the preacher? Well, before you let me have it, can we sing the old rugged cross together? I will cling to that old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown. Now what seems to be the problem? Jesus calls us the light of the world. Maybe we should look like our song. The song we sang today to the tune of the old hundredth, all people that on the earth do dwell, is Psalm one hundred. And Psalm one hundred is uh in your face psalm. It is filled with imperatives. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing, know that the Lord is God.

unknown 5:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

It's kind of refreshing, don't you think? You make, you serve, you come, you know, do it. It's in control. To be in control, it's kind of rare these days, don't you think? I saw a family in Costco and the mother said, uh don't do that. Don't touch that. I told you not to touch that. Don't I warned you. What did I say? Okay, fine. And I thought, you know, that woman has no control over her husband. You know, when no's can be maybes, when no's can be sometimes. What is that? How do you function in that? Let your no be no, your yes be yes. It's such a rare bird these days, the imperative, make a joyful noise, serve the Lord with gladness, come into God's presence with singing, do it. It seems to me that if we were writing Psalm 100 these days, uh we'd have to write something like this. I would like to invite you to offer an expression of thanksgiving to God. And when I say God, I don't mean God. I don't mean authoritarian God. I mean more of a vibe. A good and happy vibe. We could just be aware of and share together, knowing that not all of us are joyful at this moment of time, but perhaps joining in this communal experience, we might serve the vibe with gladness. And when I say serve, I don't mean to diminish your self-esteem. I'm suggesting that you would be empowered to offer your own experience back to the vibe freely. Do you think that would be all right? And that would be the end of the first verse. And we'd have to put it to the tune chitty chitty bang bang, but it will it'll it'll work. I feel like today we can all agree to disagree. But we can't agree to agree. Listen to the psalm. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. All the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God, it is he who made us, for we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Bless His name. For the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever. His faithfulness to all generations. Wow. All encompassing the imperative. Do this. We've lost that. Wouldn't wouldn't that wouldn't it be great to be the church again? The light shining on the hill. I just feel like we've taken a back seat, always reacting, always reacting, reacting, reacting to the world around us. We've lost our light, we've lost our power. We can't tell anyone what to do. We're scrambling to figure out why we're dying. How can we make God more palatable palatable to the masses? How can we attract young people? It's been kind of our mission, my whole ministry long. How do we do how well? We come up with ideas? What if we have more comfortable seating? What if we took out all the pews and have more comfortable seating? Look, as a father I have discovered that young people do not care about comfortable seating. When we go to places on my family vacation, my son and daughter scout the town in the morning and find the best coffee shops. We entered into one coffee shop up in British Columbia where you just stand. I said, What is this? We just stand here? Dad, shut up. It's the imperative. So I drank my seven-dollar cup of coffee, eating my Akiberry and birdseed breakfast. Dad, it's pronounced Asian. Whatever. My kingdom for a chair, I said. The next day we went to a different place, same prices, but it had seats, which were 90-degree concrete slabs held by chains to the wall, kind of an Alcatraz motif. How you doing, Dad? Oh, ten years to life, I said. It's not the pews, okay? What do you suppose it is then? Could be the music, could be the preaching, could be the dress code, could be the time of day, could be the friendliness, it could be all those things. It could be. Or maybe we've lost our direction. We've been thinking that the culture has the direction. Has it occurred to us lately that maybe the culture is completely lost as well? They don't know where they're going. Everything is changing so rapidly. You can get into a car downtown that doesn't have a driver. Have you done this? It's all done by light detection sensors, turning the world of color and light into ones and zeros, zeros and ones, ones and zeros, zeros and ones, zero, zero, one, zero, zero, one, zero. Are you one or are you nothing at all? I have a friend who wrote a song, sent it to me via email. It was an amazing song. He wrote the lyrics, the lead singer had an incredible voice, the band was full, the chorus had a choir. How long did that take? How much did that cost? I was impressed. Oh, he said, Oh, it's all AI. Ones and zeros, zeros and ones, one zero, zero, one, zero. Are you one? Or are you nothing at all? In this disorienting time. Maybe it's time to be unequivocal. Maybe it's time to point to some hope. There is a God and we are not it. There is light and we reflect it. There's a thing called steadfast love. It never gives up on loving any one of us. There's this thing called God, it created the whole world, everything that is in it. There is this God who is reconciling all things. There is this thing called love. There is this thing called joy, there is this thing called hope. There is this thing. And we are to do it. They're playing our song. The world is saying they are playing our song. Here's the song. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. All the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God, it is he who made us. And we are his, we are the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And his faithfulness to all generations.