DON'T LET THE MUSIC STOP

Sermon Notes, March 8, 2015

Rev. Dick Guizar

            Rev. Guizar, our new interim pastor, preached Sunday.  His message was titled “Don’t Let the Music Stop,” and his scripture basis was 1 Samuel 16:14-23 and 18:5-10, the story of David in Saul’s service, playing the harp to soothe his moods, as well as his military victories.

            When the plane carrying Buddy Holly and several other musicians crashed in 1959, people called it “The day music died.”  Music calms the emotions.  David was hired to bring comfort and to calm the king, but music died for Saul when the women sang “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”  Saul figured that David was so successful and well-loved that all that was left for him was the kingdom.  Saul wanted to hurt David.

            Any time we allow hatred and ill will to overcome us is the day the music stops for us.  There is even a chance the music will stop in church, when jealousy and selfishness intrude.  Jesus came that we may have life. (John 10:10) 

Singing and music are at the heart of worship.  We see it in the Bible, after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 15), and when Paul and Silas sang in jail (Acts 16).

When a loved one dies, the music stops.  We remember where we were when we got the news.  When someone hurts you or your children the music stops.  When someone makes fun of you, or you receive bad news, the music stops.

If we don’t deal with the hurt, we cover it with anger, then with resentment, then with revenge.  Replace it with love from Jesus, as described in the old hymn “Rescue the Perishing.”

Churches in general are going through hard times.  The music’s stopped.  But as Ruben Welch says “When nothing is happening, something is happening.”  Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)  Down in the depths of the human heart, don’t let the music stop.  “The only time you fail is when you quit.”