Ep 162: Beyond The Music - Choosing Daily Obedience (Part 1)

"What if worship isn’t the song, the stage, or the swell of the chorus—but the quiet, costly “yes” that follows when the music stops? Today, we sit down with artist, author, pastor, and longtime friend Harold B to find out the answer."

We trace a lifelong friendship with artist-pastor Harold B to ask a simple question with big stakes: if worship is obedience, what role does music really play. Stories of makeshift studios, a one-man play, and a bold high school witness show how choices shape a life with God.

• music as encourager, not the end
• worship defined as daily obedience
• Abraham’s worship without instruments
• guarding the heart from toxic media
• listening to the still small voice
• boldness formed by small choices
• Genesis lessons on repentance and truth
• practical habits that keep Jesus on the throne

(Please click on the underlined links below.)

Harold B's Media Links: https://linktr.ee/harold_b

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Transcript

Opening Reflections On Worship

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Lord, you know. You're now listening to play.

SPEAKER_05 0:04

It's the best.

SPEAKER_04 0:06

What that does is it drives away all those bondages that come and try to sit on the throne of your heart. Now he sits on the throne of your heart, and now you're encouraged to be obedient. So to all of us musicians out there, we're not the worship team, but we are encouragers. We are encouragers. Every Sunday, we encourage the body of Christ to obey God, to worship God every day of the week.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Thank you for joining us on the 230 today. It's like let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Ed David Teddy Jr., the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

As a matter of fact, done talk. Let's think about it.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

And welcome to Plays on Word Radio. I'm your DJ, Fred David Kenny Jr. And today, well, first of all, thank you, Katie Kenny and Josh Taylor, for that introduction. And then that bumper is from Harold B Resolution, an album that um we cut at my studio or a couple different locations uh many years back. And today I'm going to be bringing or presenting a brother before you, my dear brother Harold B. Who is a Christian artist, an author, a pastor, a worship leader, a servant of God. And we go way back. And I just wanted you guys to be blessed with just knowing him and getting to know him, and you get a chance. Every outlet you can imagine, you can find his music. And uh, yeah, nothing but love for the Lord there. So support this brother, check him out, and check out this conversation we had. We need to welcome Harold B to the Plays on Word Radio program. Yes, Harold B. My brother from long way back. Harold B. And and if and if if none of y'all know, you better know. You need to you need to go on you need to go on Apple Music, Spotify, uh Pandora, uh something, and check out Harold B.

SPEAKER_04 4:07

YouTube.

SPEAKER_05 4:08

YouTube something, man. And Harold B's my my man, we've we've stayed in contact. We did we did an album back. It's a shame. We should have done a couple more albums since then. But we we for those who are listening, we got we might we might have something, we might have something in the works. Every once in a while, I'll just call him, I'll just call him up and and play it, play something for him and then hang up on him. Because I know Harold will be he'll be able to write something in a second. Uh but yeah, man. So so we we did uh the the resolution album back was it 2005? Six? I don't remember the day.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

It was it was 2006, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

We met in 2005 though.

SPEAKER_04 4:54

Five, yeah, five.

Brooklyn Origins And The Resolution Album

SPEAKER_05 4:55

We met in 2005 and Brooklyn, C C C and I met two two uh awesomely influential people in my life. Um one is Howard Hewitt. I met him there, and I met Harold B. Harold B. And Har and and Harold Howard Hewitt. And uh and but Harold Hewitt didn't give me the time of day. I was like, yo, man, Shalomar, what's up? And he was like God knew what was up. But Harold B was down. Harold was like, hey, what's up, man? How you doing? I like your music. So yeah, we linked up and and um got together and we man, we were making beats. I was the youth pastor at this uh at first Baptist at Manasquan. And uh and we were making beats, man. I we I snatched this little area upstairs where they had some rug and whatnot, and I was like, man, we're gonna turn this into a studio, man. I don't care what it is. We're gonna do what we can, we're gonna make this right. And we started cutting cutting tracks, and then we finished it up at my mom's house above the garage. So you remember we start remember we started cutting some stuff over at First Baptist?

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Yes, yes, I remember that.

SPEAKER_05 6:14

Yeah, and then and then we dumped some stuff at my mom's house, and we started cutting there, and Harold would come over every Tuesday at seven o'clock. Every Tuesday. And one Tuesday, me and Katie, I think we had something, we have something going on. Or for I forgot, and I was out of the state. Harold would say, yo, where you at, man? I was like, uh, where you? He's like, I'm at your mom's house. I'm like, oh, oh man, I'm I'm far away right now, brother. Um I'm in another state or something crazy. I to this day I feel bad about that, but Harold forgave me.

SPEAKER_04 6:49

Man, so I don't regret anything, bro. Anything. Yeah, man. I'll be honest with you, man. Um I may be one of your biggest fans and one of the I'm I just I'm honored, bro, to even have work with a brother like you in your heart. I'll tell you, it's the talent you have is ridiculous. God has blessed me to be around some good people.

SPEAKER_05 7:14

Amen. You know, Mike Morgan, Mike Morgan to this day says, man, that resolution album, man, that's he's like, that's one of the best albums of all time. He just loves it, man. Mike, because I used to I used to hit Mike up with the when he was working for UPS. I'd be like, Mike, check this out, man. And I'd let him, I let him hear some of the some of the uh pre-mixes before they were done. He was like, oh man, oh man, God is real. When we all the only thing we had was like a background vocal. In fact, we might play that song, man. I'm gonna have to go DJ mode and play that song.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Is it all the stuff in the face? What all the stars in the sky is the answer to the question for the ways of the yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all words.

SPEAKER_05 9:12

Radio. Back to our interview. Yeah, and Harold came down from Elizabeth, New Jersey, when we did um, when we were at Calvary Chapel Living Water, and we did our uh Pete play for Harold. Well, not for Harold, but Harold came and was part of the audience and checked us out. And uh, do you remember anything about that play, man? Remember the boat? We had a boat on stage, man. You left your cheese.

Early Plays And Live Musicianship

SPEAKER_04 9:39

I remember your cheese. I remember getting the in the um the invitation and having my whole family come up with me. And uh my wife, my my my boys, and um so we were checking it out, and I'm saying to myself, dang, this guy, he's a you pastor, now he's a he's a and he's an amazing producer, now he's an actor. So I just like watching all this, yeah, and it's a one-man monologue plus musical. And I'm saying my man's writing soundtracks and songs, and it's like Pete is at in the water telling his story with Jesus, and then he's like casting a net over the side, yeah. Then he see in the beginning there was no track tracks, so Pete would get out the water, get out the boat, and get on the keys and start just walk right over to the keys. That's it. He tell the drummer, get on the drums, I'm playing keys, and here we go, one and a two and a three. Yeah, and I was like, bro, but what that showed me was the faithfulness to what God has started, yeah. And it showed me, you know, it it won't it doesn't take it doesn't take much, man. It just all it takes is is faithfulness. So as you were prepared, and I just saw God preparing you for you know whatever else he was has for you, like he has for you now all these different things and you're managing them all, but I just saw the prep the preparation and now I see you know where it all coming to pass and you were ready for that time. Yeah. Now you I mean the funny thing was I was ministering in Leonia, right, not knowing that Sue is there. Right. I'm like small world. Yeah, I tell him like small world. This guy's pastoring in North Carolina, and he's coming all the way up here doing a tour. And you know, stepping in and out of a boat. Now, I I I would say you probably have a soundtrack now, right?

SPEAKER_05 11:46

No, no, man. I was gonna do it. Katie was like, nah, she she likes the the live aspect, so I'm oh, so you still stepping out the boat and getting on the keys? I get step out the boat, I get on the keys, man. Uh for our Dan play, I have a backup m music soundtrack that just rocks and rolls. But sometimes, man, we go to some churches, man, and they they they don't they don't really have a budget for a PA system, so it's like you know So I roll, I I roll usually with my own PA ready to go, uh you know, and I just get all the keys and whatnot. But the uh you know, yeah, I was blessed, man, when you came out to the play, and you came out to our coffee house, we did. And uh blessed us with that, and we didn't even have our sound system really locked in at the time yet. We just had the upper speakers, we didn't even get the subs yet. But Harold was like, yo, turn it up, man, turn it up, turn it up. I was like, I think it's as loud as it's going, man. I looked at Carmine, I was like, Carmine, man, you gotta give me some more bass, man. Um yeah, that was that was a blessing. We did uh set a fire, man, for like 20 minutes, man, and the whole church, everybody just started holding hands. I don't know if you remember that or not, but it was praise and worship.

SPEAKER_04 13:05

I got pictures from that day.

SPEAKER_05 13:07

Yeah, that was uh that was a real blessing. In fact, uh Louise Cole was we were talking about that oh man, maybe a month or two ago. We were talking about the time at that time and how blessed, you know, people still remember that. But uh there's something in your book, and we're gonna get to that. Harold's got a book, we're gonna talk about it. Uh he said, Whatever you it's it's it's in the part where music and it's the true place. Uh music and it's true. Chapter five. Yeah, chapter five. Whatever you feed your heart is uh most is is what you'll become. And uh and I remember that you were that that section that just struck out as you were talking, and I remember just being in it, man, like all these different things. Uh and the Lord was preparing, you know. I wasn't wasting time with other things, I was just getting involved in in the things that He wanted me to do, and all of it adds up, all of it adds up, and and it comes together on Sunday mornings at church, but it also comes together in these plays, man. You know, the plays we're doing.

Worship Defined As Obedience

SPEAKER_04 14:17

I saw it. I think what people I think what people saw, as far as what I'm concerned, I think what people see is the account of a person that had an encounter with Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

A person that uh an ordinary person like them who just being in the presence of Almighty God and Jesus himself found themselves in an extraordinary situation and gave them significance and how it changed their lives. And it translates almost I I I'm not trying to plug anybody, but like, you know, there's another show out there, you know, it's got five seasons, you know, um, you know, on Prime, you know, starts with a C chosen, but you know, it it kind of gives so before I even knew about you know that came out, Chosen came out, you kind of had that format already down with the one person that had that account with Jesus. And it gave it off, and then people would be like, I can relate to that, and um that is what I'll take away from that. But I think most of all, like talking about music, um music is the one gateway to your soul where it doesn't even allow, it doesn't need access. So the reason why I say that is because the music that you you you listen to, the music is an expression from the soul, the desires, the the passion. It drives that. So whatever you're feeding your passion and you're feeding your soul, or whatever you're allowing to be fed, that influences your your actions, your what sits on the th the heart of your the seat of your heart. So, you know, um it's very important. Music itself isn't worship, but music is an encourager for someone to worship because worship is obedience, right? And when you obey God, yes. So for a long time I thought I was a worshiper because I was a singer, yeah, and I thought the worship team was the musicians, because that's what we've been told or that's what we've we've we've gravitated to. Because I'm not gonna say I wrote a book or something that was already uh I'm not gonna say that I wrote a book with a new revelation. This is just something that has already always been there. We've just gotten a little far from it. And so every song.

SPEAKER_05 17:02

Let's tell them the name of the book. Beyond it's Beyond the Music. Choosing a lifestyle of worship by Harold Boyd. You can get a part of my coffin. It's I'm I'm dealing I'm dealing with some pine pollen down here in North Carolina, man. Oi, yo, yo.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

But the Yeah, he needs he needs some water.

SPEAKER_05 17:20

Beyond beyond the music, and you know, choosing a lifestyle of worship, and that was clear, man. You know, and I'm so glad that you pointed that out. Uh that worship is not um is not music. Music's one of the vehicles or one of the tools. But and I often point out, you know, the the first place in the scripture where the the Hebrew word that is used for worship is where Abraham is actually, he tells his servant, he says, Me and the young lad, we're about to go up to the mountain and we're going to shaka in the Hebrew, we're going to worship and will return. But and as far as I know, there was no guitar, no piano, right, no drums, no nothing. He was going to be obedient, like you said, like you say in your book.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 18:10

You know, he was going to be obedient because God said, I want you to take your son, your only son, and take him to the mountain where I'm going to tell you and sacrifice him. And that was the that's the first mention. Of course, we know that Noah worshiped God and and uh you know Adam probably worshiped God. All these other people worship God, the line is set and all that. But the first place that it's that word is located in the scripture, Abraham's being obedient. There's no guitars, no music, no, no, no uh TVs, no pro presenter, no PowerPoint, you know, no live stream, no uh no mics, no amps, no guitars. There's nothing to do with music, man. And I really loved when I almost shouted when I read it, read your that part of your book where you're like, yo, man, I want y'all to understand something that worship ain't music. That's my that's my Wack GPT uh paraphrase of Harold's chapter right there. If you ask whack GPT, that's me. I give you the breakdown.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Oh well.

SPEAKER_05 19:15

Harold's like, let me tell you something, man. That ain't worship. That's you know, music isn't is not worship. Worship is worship is a state of heart and mind.

unknown 19:25

Right.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

Now, Billy Billy Billy Joel called it the expression of the soul, and he was onto something. Yes. Um I guess he was prophetic in saying that. But the thing is, is that music is a form of expression, but what it is is encouraging you to be obedient. So it encourages you to worship God. See, Jesus couldn't really encourage himself singing a song because he was the one. So it wasn't like he could say, I exalt me. It wasn't like he could just do stuff like that. Yeah. But what he did, but what he did was he got in the presence of God.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Yeah.

How Music Encourages Obedience

SPEAKER_04 20:09

And in the presence of God, we find him, he found himself struggling and making himself accountable to his father, yeah, and saying, if we could pass this, you know, the human part of him said, if we could pass this, then can we do that? And yet the word being in God's presence, in his father's presence, and being reminded of the word of God and the command and the command that he came to obey, which was his his worship to God. You know, he he was submitting to God and and and he was obedient to God. It was in his presence that in God's presence that took away all those other things, and it reminded him and encouraged him to be obedient to the will of his father. And so there's times when we go through things and we say, Man, I don't know if I can do this, I don't know if I can get rid of it, I don't know if I can let go of this uh struggle I have, I don't know if I can let go of this um bondage that I'm in. But then when you listen to a song that has the word of God in it that directs your heart toward God, now you're in the presence of God. And in the presence of God, evil things can't, you know, the enemy can't stand in the present, holy presence of holy God. So when you're singing and right, you're you're you're listening to the word, you're hearing songs, these songs that are exalting God and and and and um you know putting him in the top of your mind, as I would say. He would be the first thing on your mind. What that does is it drives away all those bondages that come and try to sit on the throne of your heart. Now he sits on the throne of your heart, and now you're encouraged to be obedient. So, to all us musicians out there, we're not the worship team, but we Are encouragers. We are encouragers. Every Sunday, we encourage the body of Christ to obey God, which is worship God, every day of the week.

SPEAKER_05 22:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

So if you're in the word if you're in the music encouragement department, I would say blessings and cursings can't come out of the same mouth. So remember your gift and be an encourager through song and through word and in deed. Music plays such an important part. Even today, in today's society, be careful what you're just allowing on, you know. Oh, I like that beat. Yeah. But what's what's coming with that beat? What are they saying behind that beat? And then we want then we wonder why we are struggling. Because we're talking about boogie shaking and jiggoloing and getting money and all these other things. And now that is getting access to your soul and your spirit, where your desire, your heart is the uh seat of your emotions and desires. God wants that. God wants to be the throne of that because he knows if he's on a throne of your heart, then you will follow him. Wherever your heart is, your treasure is. Wherever your heart is, your actions will follow. Temptation is not sin. But when you give into it, that's when it's sin. And so that's what that's what we do. We come in and we sing these songs, how you know we can overcome, and I'm gonna see a victory for the battle belongs to the Lord. And now we realize, oh, I can see a victory because we, you know, we've allowed, we've fed our spirit with that song that has brought us back to the power of God and in his presence.

Guarding The Heart From Toxic Media

SPEAKER_05 23:57

Yeah, you know, I I like how I love it. I I like how you talk in the book, how you talk about um when you were, I want to say 14. And uh that's when you gave your life to the Lord, and and and you you uh it was 14, right? Yeah, a young guy.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

I was 14 in the first 1986.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

Yeah, man, and you were, you know, uh I just I really appreciated that that section. I can relate to that. I mean, I I I went right back there with you, and I'm like, yeah, man, I I I remember, you know, you brought your Bible, you bring your Bible in, and you think, you know. And so just tell us a little bit, tell us a little bit about how, you know, you brought your Bible to the to the cafeteria, well, you know, when everybody else is eating. Harold B brought his Bible in with him, you know, to let people know that's right. I'm a believer, I'm a follower of God, you know. Um I was feeling that, but so take us back to when you when you when the Lord became real to you, when Jesus, when you really met him.

Harold’s Conversion And Bold Witness

SPEAKER_04 24:58

Okay, yeah. When I met the real Jesus, this is what happened. I was I was in church. Now, I'm a church boy because I grew up in church. My mother was a praying woman, my father was a church leader, evangelist. He, you know, he was an elder in the church. And um we come to this church where the word is being preached. I'll never forget that word that was preached. And the and it was like he was saying, the preacher was saying, you can you can come in here and look good, but you know, and God knows when you're living the life of sin, or you know, you're not living for him. And I knew I was a hypocrite at that time. Because how I was doing my family, you know, I would go out there and hang out with friends and and just talk the way they would talk, and then come home and treat my brother and sister, and my you know, my brothers and my sister, like you know, I'm surprised they would have self-esteem nowadays. That's how bad I was. And then that's but that made me a hypocrite, how I was doing living. It was in the presence of God. When I was in God's presence at that time, I literally felt like a sunglass, uh hourglass with the sunlight coming through, and how it would pierce and burn like a bee on the ground. You know, back in the day we do that to insects. Yes. I I was that, I was that that magnifying glass of God was went on my heart and burned out everything. And in his presence, I realized who he was, this almighty and holy God who could see everything. And I was exposed. And then what happened was I I acknowledged who I was. So I realized I acknowledged that God, in his presence, I acknowledged that God was this great, almighty, holy, um, you know, king. And here I was this sinful person, dirty, and and and it exposed my and I knew I was wrong, and it admitted, and it brought me to a point of repentance. Yeah. And so then the preacher said, and then and then and then I said, I gotta get my life right because I was in the church, but it was, but he wasn't in me. Like I was there, but Jesus wasn't in me. I was but I wasn't obedient. So when then that got me to a point where I got in the prayer line and I I gave my life to Christ because I wanted to be right. And since then, June 1st, 1986, Sunday morning, I gave my life to the Lord because I did not want to be a hypocrite anymore. I was 14 years old. But remember, I know it sounds crazy. I was 12 years old when I backslid, but I was 14 when I came back. But the fact is, I knew the Lord, I knew of the Lord, right, right, right. And I knew what was right, but it wasn't until that word, and I was in his presence, that I received the and it fell on fertile ground that I responded to God's presence. I responded with obedience, and I got on that line, and I gave my life to the Lord, and I never turned back since. And so that brings me to a place where they the Bible says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, but it's the power of God and the salvation to them that believe. So I had to, I said, man, I want to be obedient in that. Am I not ashamed of the gospel? And that's when I decided, okay, put your money, because you know, in you in the world, they're gonna dare you to do stuff. And they're like, I dare you to do this, I dare you to do that, I dare you to jump over that gate and and and jump, climb in that backyard that ain't yours. You know, just do some crazy stuff. Yeah. So then I'm like, okay, if they could dare the world to do that, all right, I'm gonna dare me to do something for God, you know. So that's when I said, I knew, you know, I was a football player back then. I was like, you know, I was running with everybody. But then I was like, let's see what happens. And so I went to I went to school. I was in 10th grade, I was in high school, and I said, All right, I'm gonna open my Bible up at lunchtime. And I sure did. I opened up my I I prayed. I was scared and nervous, but I said, I gotta prove to God that I love him this much. And I was obedient. I opened up my Bible at lunchtime, and a couple dudes that knew me on the team was like, What's that? A Bible? And I was like, Yeah, yeah, that's my I'm like doing it, man. And then um honestly. But yeah, I I practiced it. I practiced it. I put my faith where my mouth was. And it made me, it encouraged me to be the bold person I am today. Now, you can't keep me quiet. But if I didn't, if I wasn't obedient before, I probably would not be the outgoing person I am today. So, you know, um being in the presence of God and responding to who he is and being obedient, it encourages me to want to just go further and further and further. So, you know, and I I will say this people came in high school, I had two or three friends that came to the Lord because of that boldness.

SPEAKER_05 30:21

See? See, the and the the Lord was preparing it, working in you even then. Even you know, and and all air, I think the Lord uses everything, man. All all the stuff that we've done, all the that's why it's important, like you said in your book, man, the stuff you put in, you you gotta be careful what you put in. Because uh, you know, we need to be aware of it. There are times I'll watch a movie with Katie or something, and and you know, I can't even I can't even watch Netflix anymore. It's like I'm not right. Just the other day we were watching something, and some nonsense comes on, and I'm like, I'm not subjecting myself to this. No, no, I'm drawing the line. Uh no, I'll I'll I got up, went to the bedroom, but she ended up turning it off too. And it was terrible too, because it was it was a decent movie, and we were it was a cool story, and all of a sudden then they're going nonsense, going stupid, going off the rails. And I'm like, come on, man. Right. And it didn't add anything to the story. But the thing is, you know, like you had a choice, and it's amazing because uh the Lord, every time you know, people say they have faith in him, you can you can expect that faith to be tested. Not not that God wants to see what's going on, it's really to make it so that it's tested so that you you become out better. But you can say you trust him and love him all you want, but it it's really when the test comes. And you you went out and you were bold, you practiced, and you know, you passed that. Not just past the test, but it honed you in such a way that you became you came out better. And I think every Christian, man, we sit watching these or listen, like you're saying, listening to this nonsense on the radio. We have a tendency to be uh I'll just ignore it this time, or I'll put up with it. I'll just put up with it. Uh, you know, I'll put up with listen, if somebody was gonna pull it up to my house with a with a sewage truck and unhook a hose from his truck into my house, I wouldn't allow that. Right. But but yet we allow we allow that stuff. We allow A V type of sewage to come into our house, get on in our minds, and we're just like, uh, I'll just I'll push through it, you know. Um and I it's I'm tired of it, man. I'm I'm just I'm I don't even I really don't watch much I don't watch any TV anyway, but once in a while we'll watch a movie or something, Katie watched, you know, or some silly shows, some some British shows or something. But you can't it's a shame, right?

SPEAKER_04 32:50

You know the thing is you don't know you you you well as you grow in Christ and you're in the presence of God, you know the difference.

SPEAKER_05 33:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:01

You don't know the difference if you're not spending enough time to know what your father loves and doesn't love.

SPEAKER_05 33:09

Yeah.

Tests, Choices, And Holiness

SPEAKER_04 33:09

To know what is right and what's wrong. We are living in a compromising world because time, because of where everything is watered down. Yep, and as opposed to pleasing God, sometimes we feel like we have to please man or to blend in so we don't make too much noise. Well, like you said, there has to be a time, and I ask God, God, please let me be that when that time comes where I have to draw the line in the sand for you, please, God, help me to be help me to be ready to do it. And so but we all have to make that decision. Just like in the book, the most the most spiritual thing you could ever do is to make a choice. Yeah, it's a it's yeah, it's a choice, man. It's the most spiritual thing you could ever do. That's why the by the song that's why the book is called You know, Beyond the Music Choose. Choosing a lifestyle of worship. Choosing a lifestyle. Because it's not something it's not performance-based. You know, it's not like, well, I go on Sunday, I follow these rules, it's not a checklist. Yeah, and it's not based on, you know, your whole your holiness is not based on your performance.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:32

Your holiness is it's not what you do, but God sees the heart you do it with. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Right.

SPEAKER_04 34:40

It's out of the obedience and and out of your response to what God says that God sees. Yeah. Because you had the one man who was you know, the one man who was praying and saying all loud, you know, I'm this guy. Thank God I'm not like that guy. Yeah. Exactly. Meanwhile, Jesus go, God Jesus says in the parable that God honors the other guy who was saying, God, oh wretched man, that I am.

SPEAKER_05 35:09

He wouldn't even look up. He wouldn't even look up to God. He was like, Lord, I'm a man. And that's that's that godly sorrow that leads to repentance. And there you go. There's thank you.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Thank you. So um I I've been there where there were certain shows that I would watch that would grieve my spirit. There were certain shows that were so funny but were vulgar. Yeah, but they were funny. So I was laughing, but deep down inside I said, I can't watch this no more. Yeah, yeah. Deep down, I'm like, man, this is hilarious, but I can't do it anymore because it's not honoring God. But that's because I've been in his presence, and his presence showed me the difference. Then I have to make a choice.

SPEAKER_05 35:55

Yeah. And he's small voice. He speaks with a still small voice. Still small voice. He's like, that ain't right, that ain't right. That ain't right. That's not right.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

That's that's not right. That's the Holy Spirit. Yeah, the Holy Spirit. And the thing is, if you're listening and in tune, you'll make the right choices.

unknown 36:13

Right.

SPEAKER_04 36:13

Because some people, when you when you choose to continue in the sin, now it becomes a stronghold where it could have been nipped in the bud a long time ago.

SPEAKER_05 36:25

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

Yeah, and it's amazing.

Still Small Voice And Strongholds

SPEAKER_05 36:28

We we're going through Genesis at the church right now. We early uh we just did uh Adam and Eve, and then we did Cain and Abel last week. And it's interesting. As soon as they sin, God shows up on the scene, man. Both times, God is in pursuit right when they sin. He even warns them both. He warned a K he warned Adam, he said, Don't eat of that tree, man. And he warned Cain, he said, sins right there. And he gave him a choice that when he when he said, Where are Adam? Where are you? It wasn't that God didn't know. God knows everything. He was given a choice to to to to say uh to repent. He was giving him an but he doubled down. He said, Nah, that woman that you gave me. He blamed God and the woman.

SPEAKER_04 37:10

Right.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

And then Cain, the Cain did the same thing. God was like, yo, where's your brother at, man? And Cain was like, I don't know. First lie. And then he says, Am I my brother's keeper? He's almost getting sarcastic. You know? Like, am I supposed to be looking out for? And and uh both times when God said, you know, to Cain, he's like, Where's your he's what would have happened if Cain would have just repented and said, Oh my god, Lord, I've I've done something terrible. I've you know, I repent in dust and ashes. And uh please forgive me. Not one time, yeah. Genesis 4, not one time is he is does he even does he even mention that he gave Abel a dirt nap. He put him in the dirt.

unknown 37:51

Right.

SPEAKER_05 37:51

He killed he killed his brother. Not one time does he show remorse for that, but God is, you know, he's giving that choice. And we have the opportunity to to either choose to pursue God or or to choose to just roll with with sin and be completely wretched. Amen. Amen to that. Well, hey, we're gonna continue this next week. God willing, if the creek don't rise, alright, and if the Lord don't come back. But until then, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

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