Instruments of Worship

Music As Service, Not Stardom | Ep. 12

• Casey Rinkenberger • Episode 12

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When you play your instrument or perform, are you trying to be a servant or a star?  It's a convicting questions for any musician.  Today, we look at Jesus' example of servanthood as we break down how we might serve Him and others through our music.    


Discussion Questions -- Try reflecting on your own or with a group:)

  • Have you ever thought about this world as a counterfeit kingdom?  Do you think this is an accurate description?  Explain. 
  • What are some differences between the counterfeit kingdom and God’s Kingdom? 
  • Do you seek to be a star or a servant through your music? 
  • Have you ever thought of your music as a way of serving? 
  • What might be getting in the way of you serving through your music?
  • What is an aspect of Jesus’ servanthood that impacts you the most? 
  • Do you believe that all you have you have only received based on 1 Corinthians 4:7?  Do you act like it? 
  • What do you say when someone compliments you?  
  • Has someone else’s music served you at any point in your life? Explain.
  • What is a way you can serve others with your music?
  • How does Jesus’ triumphant second coming widen or grow your perspective? 


To help engage our hearts in greater worship to Him, check out these songs that relate to this episode!  


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SPEAKER_00:

Hi friends, my name is Casey Rinkenberger and I am so excited to welcome you to the Instruments of Worship podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to encouraging and equipping classical musicians to lift high the name of Jesus with their instruments but also their lives. Because music is a performance-based profession and we are by nature sinful, selfish people, sometimes we play our instruments or perform them to bring glory to ourselves. Today we are going to discuss music as a means that we can serve God and others not ourselves. In other terms, we're going to talk about humility as a musician. And I don't speak to you today as someone who has already perfected this by no means, but I think it's still so important to talk about. I heard this week that no one drifts into holiness. If we wait for these heart postures to just happen naturally, I can guarantee you that they won't. Instead, we can continually dissect and learn and pray that through the Holy Spirit, we would grow in them though, because this is our warfare against the devil and So first of all, today, we're going to be comparing the stardom that the world seeks and the servanthood that Jesus embodies. So first, the world stardom. We kind of need to paint this picture here that even though we are saved, we still live in this world, which is a counterfeit kingdom with Satan at the helm. Satan knows that he has ultimately been defeated, but until then, he is still prowling around seeking to destroy and devour anyone that seeks to exalt the one true God. This counterfeit kingdom of the world is God denying, God destroying, human-centered, self-centered culture. And we may find ourselves many times in that today. The problem is that this kingdom, this counterfeit kingdom, is it's shiny and attractive on the outside. But scripture exposes what it truly is. This counterfeit kingdom only leads to ruin, death, fear, sadness, destruction, devastation, hate, and the list goes on and on. And yet so many are lured into and fall prey to its crafty schemes, both non-believers and believers at times. This counterfeit kingdom promises abundance, but it only leads to ruin. as christians we are called to live separate from the world and not fall in line with the ways of this counterfeit kingdom because our god the king of our lives is yahweh the lord king jesus who is seated on the throne he is the only one worthy of our worship The counterfeit kingdom glorifies self and loves wealth, attention, success, popularity, feeling special, fame, all those things that will never satisfy. The cravings of this world are sinful, selfish, and self-obsessed, but they, again, never satisfy. If we're honest, there may be still parts of us, though, that desire that attention, success, lots of money, fame, and so on, especially as musicians. We may see our music as an avenue to receive attention, to receive affirmation, which makes us feel good. But I want to remind us today that God wants us to love Him and not this world, not be obsessed with ourselves. The world wants us to love ourselves and do what serves our best interest, always, never thinking about anyone else, especially God. But Jesus calls us to do what is countercultural, to be servants and to be selfless, just like He was. Jesus' servanthood and what that looks like. There's literally no better place to look for an example of servanthood than the life and love of Jesus. Jesus is God and always has been with God forever, as it says in John 1.1. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords, as it says in Revelation 19.16. Yet, he came to live on this earth as a human so that he could one day save us from our sins. Philippians 2.5-9 describes Jesus' humility in this way. in your relationships with one another had the same mindset as christ jesus who being in the very nature god did not consider equality with god something to be used to his own advantage rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross It says things you might have noticed, like he made himself nothing. He became a servant. What? Like he's the one who's supposed to be served, not serve others. He was humble. And it's just wow. We actually had this passage read at our wedding because if you know in a marriage, selfishness is one of the key foxes that would seek to destroy a marriage. The love of self and always seeking your own interests. But Christ calls us to selflessness and he models that for us. And so that's why we had it read at our wedding of we have hope that Jesus was this for us. And so even when we fail, there's grace for that. But he is our goal. He is our model in all of this. We don't just try to pull these things out of thin air he showed us what selflessness looks like and that creates for a healthy marriage but that also creates for a healthy heart just as we live lives especially as musicians he made himself nothing he became a servant he was humble and I'm not sure that I can even say all those things are entirely true for me and I wasn't the king of kings and lord of lords but he came as a dependent crying baby born in a barn or cave or lean to who knows exactly but a very humble humble beginning to two people who couldn't even afford a spotless lamb to sacrifice scripture tells us that they could only afford the two pigeons because they couldn't afford a spotless lamb He was a carpenter's son from Nazareth, which was considered a very insignificant and unremarkable place. People thought, could anything even good come from Nazareth because of the poor reputation it had? He ate with tax collectors and sinners, people who were hated in the community. He associated with people who were considered unclean and lowly. He even washed the disciples' feet. And I have never washed anyone's feet. And I can't imagine that I would really like doing that. It's almost the pinnacle of humility that I can think of feet are kind of gross and dirty and he washed them with his hands he touched them and he cared for them in that way He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, just a small colt. He was betrayed by his friends many times. He was spat on, beaten, mocked as king of the Jews with the crown of thorns on his head as he hung up there on the cross. And he bore the wrath of God that our sins deserved all the way to death. You can't come up with a picture of more humility than that. Romans 6.23 says, The wages of sin is death. And he paid that wage for us on the cross. But three days later, he rose from the dead through his awesome power, and he was raised to life, forever defeating the grip of sin and death. That gives us hope. Hebrews 1.3 says, The Son, who is Jesus, is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So we can see, wow, the glory of Jesus, the glory of Christ. Yet we also got to see the humility of Christ. He, if anyone, has means to boast, and we should boast in him. But we don't have a means to boast, and yet we do boast in ourselves. So let's look at Jesus. He is the ultimate example of servanthood, and he is who we should model our lives after in this way. So next we're gonna try it and diagnose what is really getting in the way of our serving through our music I want to introduce you to this book. It's called the heart of the artist by Roy Noland and it In one of his chapters, he talks about humility as an artist, and he gives three barriers to true servanthood. So I'm just going to read those to you. They're an attitude of superiority, ulterior motives, or self-sufficiency. So first, starting with an attitude of superiority. He explains that this is misguided pride that seeks to lift up self, not God. We may think we deserve the glory and praise that only belongs to God, and this would be an attitude or Next would be ulterior motives. Nolan reminds us that our hearts are deceitful. When we play our music for others, we may have the ulterior motive of wanting approval, validation, applause, attention, being noticed. Or maybe it's seeking things like pleasure, possessions, and positions. But all those are not a pure motive of playing our music. Those are other things that have crept in that have taken hold of our heart. The last one would be self-sufficiency. I'm quoting him here. It says, People who are gifted and talented always run the risk of thinking and acting like they don't need the Lord. They can become self-sufficient if you're not careful. In Philippians 3.3, Paul insists that his confidence is in Christ, not himself. So, Maybe think for yourself. You might struggle mainly with one of these things, or maybe all three of these things to a degree. I think we can all probably say that. No matter what, we can all say that at some point in our lives, we've fallen prey to these ways of thinking that reveal our desire to self-glorify, not glorify the Lord in our heart. So I want to give you a little acronym that might help as we consider this topic, and that is joy. Jesus others you. This counterfeit kingdom shouts at us, It's all about you, you, you or me, me, me. But the proper way to think is actually Jesus, others, you. And that is joy. That brings joy. So I can't take credit for this. This actually comes from the Baylor basketball team. Obviously, you know, I went to Baylor, love Baylor basketball. It's March, March Madness. And a couple of years ago, they actually won the national championship. And the year that they did, their coach, Coach Scott Drew, made a huge point of this being their motto. It's so important whether you're on A sports team, you know, you can't be selfish on a sports team. You have to work together. Whether you're on a sports team or you're in an orchestra, you're teaching, you're gigging, you're managing organizations or organizing things, you're performing all over, you're composing. No matter what your life looks like, musical or not musical, Jesus teaches us joy. Jesus, others, you. I think we can see this in scripture in Matthew 22, 36 through 40, when a disciple asks him, teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. So loving and serving God first and foremost, then other people. Always before yourself. This is so much easier said than done. And again, it goes against everything that the world is telling us. Again, it goes against our sinful flesh that tells us that we are the center of the universe and that we need to preserve ourself and love ourself and glorify ourself, that we're worthy of it. Again, of course, this is wrong thinking. So let's dissect this a little bit. So first serving Jesus. We've talked about this before, how we can worship the Lord through our music. Again, it can't be discussed or dissected enough because our selfish desires, our sin, the world, sometimes even the people around us tell us otherwise. So we need to continually wage war against the devil on this battleground. It has eternal impact for a musician. This is such a big fight. We must engage both in our heart and our mind. So when you play, whether it's a solo in an orchestra, in a small group, at church, in a studio class, you're recording something, it's just helpful to think, are you trying to be a servant or are you trying to be a star or the star? Are you showing yourself off or showing God off? Are you exalting him or yourself? Are you wanting to be glorified or are you wanting God to be glorified? Sometimes the devil would try to tempt us to have thoughts like this. Should God even get the glory or should I? Because aren't I the one who has practiced hours upon hours anyways? Or maybe it's, do we actually believe all things are a gift from him? Or do we kind of have really a part to play in that? Are we to think in that? Sometimes in music, we are tempted to think, well, I've actually worked really hard on this concerto. Shouldn't I receive the praise for it in my senior recital? I've worked my whole entire life working at mastering my instrument. I think it actually might be because of me that I I played just so well or I just won that audition or something. And again, these are lies from the devil. Here are three scriptures to prove it to you and three scriptures to combat those lies whenever you hear that from the devil. We'll start with 2 Corinthians 3, 5. Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. James 1.17 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. And lastly, 1 Corinthians 4.7, For who considers you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you didn't receive it? I love this verse because all that we have is a gift. We've received it. We are not the originator of any of it. But sometimes we boast as though it did come from us like it was because of us, not because of God. A friend told me one time, and really this helped me put it in perspective. She said that sometimes Tim Keller would bring up the point in his sermons like this. you could have been born in some remote island in the tropics with no access to communication with the outside world or no musical opportunities no access to a church or you could have been born in a war zone or born with a limiting physical disability you name it you could come up with anything and it just proves the point that it's all by the grace of god that we do what we do and are who we are we have nothing that we did not first receive from the lord we really ought not boast otherwise it's not fair it didn't come from us we must not boast in ourselves and this is both internally in our heart sometimes we think those things or externally sometimes we boast in front of others but it's both both are important it's not just one or the other they both come from our heart we have nothing to do with being born where we were with the innate abilities that you have to the parents that you have even in the decade that you were born the century that you were born You don't have anything to do with that. And yet God placed you intentionally where you are with a purpose. He has provided for you through the good and the bad and has a plan for your life. So again, what we have, we have only received. We have not been the originator of any of it. So it's only worth boasting in the Lord, thanking him for it, not ourselves. Sometimes I think I need to get better at, and maybe you can relate to this too, that when someone says something complimentary to me about my playing or really anything, I want to get in the habit of saying, praise God for that. Even a thank you that's not, wrong and maybe you can say thank you praise god but it's really to him who is due the praise for anything that you produce on stage or not it's only by his hand and saying that acknowledging that to people does humble your own heart and it also gives him the glory and for to this person who is trying to be say something encouraging which is nice but it reminds them also that it's not because of you that you're not due the praise and the glory and the honor it's the lord Really, when I think about it, that's the only right response if you know that everything you have or do or ever have done is a gift from the Lord. Something very similar Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 10 is, it is by the grace of God I am what I am. And I just say amen to that. honor and glorify and serve Christ with your music. He is well pleased with your music when accompanied with a humble heart, a worshipful heart that praises him for who he is and his abundant grace in our lives. So that's the first one. Serve Jesus with your music, but then serve people. An example of this in the Bible is actually 1 Samuel 16, when King Saul was tormented with an evil spirit. He was advised to seek a skilled musician who would play for him whenever he was upset to soothe his pain. And that's where David comes in. They found David to play the lyre for him. And verses 21 through 23 say this. David came to Saul and served him. Saul loved him very much and made David his armor bearer. Saul sent this message to Jesse. Please let David stay with me because I have grown fond of him. Whenever God's spirit came to Saul, David took the lyre and strummed a tune. Saul got relief from his terror and felt better, and the evil spirit left him. It literally says that David served. David served Saul through his music. His music would soothe Saul, help him feel better. And I think many of us could say we've experienced something like that. Can you think of a time where somebody else's music has served you in that way, kind of ministered to you? Again, this may be different than you've ever thought, but we play not to lift up ourselves, but to love each other, even with a sound of encouragement, something that might touch their heart, a good message. beautiful, true sound that may point them towards the goodness, truth, and beauty found perfectly in our God. Or maybe like Saul, Your audience may struggle with sadness, anxiety, or fear in this dark world, but God is the God of peace, light, love, hope, and joy. Our music can point people to these attributes of God, whether our audience is even aware of it or not, that you're doing that, that these things that they hear and they love really represent God. So the next time you play for others, you might try reshaping your mind to think of serving your audience and pointing them to Jesus through your music. And that actually takes away fear for you and gives you freedom instead. If our goal is just perfection and we will feel failure and we are so caught up in the pressure of what people are going to think of our playing and that sort of thing, people pleasing in our playing, then we will be terrified. We will be stressed and we will be terrified of playing. But if our goal is serving others, that can happen whether you give a perfect performance or not. You don't have to feel the pressure. If your goal is to serve others, then there's freedom in that. Freedom and not letting perfection take over. If you are fearing others and you're trying to please them with your music and have them think well of you glorify you in the end of it all then there will be that fear of failure that anxiety that tension i feel when you play because you're stressed about just giving a perfect performance and i think the more that we do this slowly we will see it as a joy to serve others through music not a stressful anxiety-inducing performance where we just need to impress others and prove ourselves and at the end of the day we know that even if we do happen to impress others and they think highly of us That doesn't satisfy our hungry, hungry soul. Only Jesus will. And doing things that glorify and worship him will. The things that have eternal impact. But if we're seeking to just lift ourselves high in this world, it will always fall short and we'll always end up disappointed. So lastly, there is joy in being last. There's joy in being humble. Humility, defined in The Heart of the Artist, that book I was just talking about, is moving from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. It's not just having a false humility of having a lower view of self, but really just having a right and appropriate view of yourself in the grand scheme of the world and certainly compared to God. He is so much greater. The world does not revolve around us, even though we are born into this world thinking it does. But God is the center of all. And we just get to worship around his throne. We are a very, very small part. We are one out of billions of people in the world and kajillions of people that have ever been in this world. And so we need to have an appropriate view of where we stand in things. Tim Keller talks a lot about this in his book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, which I think I've brought up before. But humility is not puffing yourself up or thinking about yourself poor Remember, Jesus others you. It produces joy. So lastly, I just want to remind you, yes, we got to see Jesus come humbly to this earth. He suffered on our behalf. He died for you and me, and he rose again forever, defeating sin and death. But that's not even all. He is coming back again. So like I just said, sometimes we think that we're the center of the story, but the story is so much bigger. We are part of a much bigger and better story. Jesus's rule and reign as king has always been true, but not always visible. And some that's hard to grapple with when we live in this counterfeit kingdom right now. But one day, after living years and years in this counterfeit kingdom, we will get to see the faithful and true, perfect, holy, good, and pure king of all. he first came riding on a donkey yes but he will come again riding a white horse fit for a king he was once followed by a band of twelve disciples but he will come again followed by an army of faithful followers dressed in white the purity of his righteousness This all comes from Revelation 19. So go ahead and read how the story ends. That's our hope. And that's what we get to glory in. We don't glory in ourselves. That's such a small world. It's so hopeless, but we glory in this much grander story that God has written and is writing that he includes us in that we get to be a part of and just how good and how amazing he is. This is our aim. The things of this world will never last. We talk about it all the time. Any attention, any affirmation, any applause, possessions, positions, money that you get, you can't take it with you. It won't last. So do what has eternal value instead. Do what you can to boldly proclaim Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in your own heart. May you believe that, but then even out to others, may you proclaim that and give them that hope to stand on too. Give him the glory in all and your love of self will slowly fade away. And that is a good, good thing and will bring us lasting joy and peace. So I just want to thank you so much for spending part of your day with me today. Make sure to check the description for more worship songs that I will hope will encourage your heart in worship and give you greater insight into some of the things we talked about today. Also in the description, you can look for discussion questions that you can reflect on by yourself or with a group. If you think you may know someone who might be encouraged by this podcast, please send it to them and make sure to download, follow and subscribe wherever you are listening. I will sure look forward to seeing you all next Monday.