I've been doing this for about 35 years and
I had a kid come up to me in a concert the other day who gone online and
counted all the songs I've ever written because it never occurred to me to count them and it was
383 at that point and that was 20 songs ago, so whatever 20 Plus 383 is
how many songs I've Written but I say that to tell you this is my favorite [one] of
all of them so hear this and we will kind of be done
it's all downhill
and I'll teach it to you
and
also wrote this song with
my musical Hero Vance Taylor who plays in the Four Tops band maybe you've heard of the four tops a little group. Yeah
so this is as cool as my music is
if you are wounded and if you're alone
if you are angry
if your heart is cold as stone
if you have fallen
and if you are weak
come find the worth of
God that only the suffering seek
[this gonna be your part] come lift up your sorrows
and offer your pain
come make the sacrifice
of all your shame, there in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
to worship him with your wounds for He's wounded too
He has not stuttered
and He has not lied
when He said Come unto me
you're not disqualified. If you're heavy laden
you may want to depart
but those who know sorrow
they're closest to his heart
come lift up. come lift up your sorrows and offer your pain
come make a sacrifice
of all your shame
there in your wilderness He's waiting for you
to worship him with your wounds for He's wounded too
in this most holy place
He's made a sacred space
for those who will enter in
and trust to cry out
to Him and you'll find
no curtain
there
No reason left
For fear, and there's perfect freedom
here to weep every unwept tear
Come lift up your sorrows and offer your pain
Come make a sacrifice
of all of your shame, there in your wilderness
He's waiting for you waiting for you
to worship Him with your wounds
For He's wounded too
[Clapping]
Okay, so Mike you say that's your favorite song why?
First of all do you realize how scary it is having him ask you questions
Okay, okay before you answer raise your right hand and do you swear to tell the truth yeah? Yeah? Yeah, yeah?
Yeah
Have you stopped beating your wife?
Yeah, why is it my favorite? Yeah? It's my favorite because it does what out?
I always hope this song might do it engages with a passage of [Scripture] Psalm 51
and it makes it believable and beautiful and and people they see these lyrics and they go
where did he get that from?
right and if you go to the scriptures
and you open your Bible to see where I got it from whether you agree with me or not, I win
so
right, I'm not trying to persuade you of anything. I'm just trying to get you to open your Bible so Psalm 51 is one that that
traditionally and sure seems to fit the life of David after his sin with Bathsheba and his murdering of
Bathsheba's husband and
and his contrition in his prayer that God would would
not turn away from him. Yeah, alright
so you were you reading the Psalm and it moved you into the the song or were you?
I was struggling
songs so often come from
good songs come from struggle. God gifts us with hunger. He gifts us with struggle
We think it's not a gift, and we ask him to take it away right and some I'm struggling with with worship
I've always felt like a second-class spiritual citizen when it comes to worship in the in the Jesus movement
How many people here are product of the Jesus movement [there] some of us still out there?
If you didn't speak in tongues you were a second-class
spiritual citizen
I never did
I never could I never could find you know they even had
classes at one point on how to do it which seems a little bit odd
but and so Mark I've always felt like a second-class spiritual citizen, then I read a Psalm in the
collection of the greatest worship you know lyrics in the world and it's it's a Psalm that a worship song that in
in the in the course of the Psalm he's offering up all he has left see he's
forfeited everything right? It's all he has left is a broken spirit in the contract heart and David realizes
I think as he's writing that song that all he has left is all God ever wanted in the first place
broken spirit in the contrite heart so what I wanted to do is encourage because I know they're people here who also feel [like] second-class
spiritual citizens, but let me tell you if you have can if you have a contrite heart and a broken spirit
you're exactly the person
the Lord is looking for and unfortunately
we feel like we're supposed to leave that at the door [of] the church right and the other piece of this
came from the fact that I was disciple in an African-American church and in that church
we understood that you bring your struggles and you offer them up that's where so many of the spirituals come from and
so it all came together in a really cool way and again. I got to the music. I did along with a
man that I really respect and
so that's why it's my favorite long answer sorry
no
that's perfect answer it and as you were talking it made me think I know you've done a lot out of the gospels and I
hope you'll you'll
Mike's written books on the gospels that are phenomenal books
very readable yet very scholastic at the same time and I commend them to everybody
there are copies in your local
Theological Library if you ever need to go there in fact that you may even find a signed copy or two on the shelf um
but
one of the things in the gospels that
reminds me of what you're saying is when Jesus makes his triumphal entry yeah
He's weeping and He's weeping the children are actually Palm Sunday the children are crying out
Maranatha Maranatha and
the establishment gets on Jesus for for the praise and says tell them to shut up, right?
And Jesus appropriate right Jesus makes a comment from the mouths of babes and infants will come
perfect praise and so
that is perfect praise and we you understand that praise if
we understand what Maranatha means and we've got Weston Fields visiting today also
who's the International Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls and frequent visitor here and and
Weston would be up here giving you and I both a lesson in the Aramaic of Maranatha that it means save us
we pray yes, it was the cry of
a contrite broken spirit that Jesus called perfect, praise good good
Yeah, I think that's a powerful idea
It's a powerful idea well think about this at the point in his life when He is most being used by God
What is Jesus doing?
He's lamenting and
[I] think it's a really elegant idea that could it be that at the point in our lives when we're struggling the most
When we're saying why have you forsaken me? Which is what most of the Psalms numerically most of the Psalms are laments?
Okay
Could it be that that's when God is using me the most. I think that's a beautiful idea
My God My God, why have you forsaken me of Psalm 22 hidden it and
Go read Psalm 22 sometime read to the end and see if Jesus is thinking that Psalm about the victory
He's proclaiming at the end to that comes with it and all of the laments turn except one Psalm 88
laments all the way to the end. I think it's just there to ruin my theory that they all turn but
otherwise the laments always turn into worship now
They're all praise right when I'm when I'm sharing my anger even my anger with God and my frustration and as long as that
conversation is happening in faith. That's that's worship
Worship is celebrating the worth of God and only God is worth offering this confusion and stuff up to
but then they all become praise yeah at some point except 88 of course even even lamentations make this makes this wonderful turn
because of your head see we're not consumed and it turns at that point is cool idea now we will not get into a tattoo
conversation very nice well what?
Tessed is a word that has a lot of meaning [to] you
It does even I know you spend a lot of time in Israel. It's a tough word to translate
untranslatable
Untranslatable my Hebrew teacher would not let [us] fail to translate it when we came across it however
he generally would make us a covenant loyalty or are sometimes kindness, Weston is okay
It's hate in Leviticus once it's translated hate
Hmm 14 different ways in King James they translate that one word and King James makes up the word [loving-kindness]
That's a word. That's made up
Trying to translate Tessed which I think is untranslatable like love love is untranslatable
How do you translate that I just put a picture of Becky up that's exact the point well. That's the point
How do you translate how do you translate Tessed you incarnate it?
Right the only way we can understand this concept is this this word that God uses to define himself is to incarnate it
That's right. That's exactly the point. I put a picture of Jesus up and that defines covenant loyalty kindness loving kindness
hatred of sin and things that are evil. Yeah, it's it's a it's an amazing word. It's a
It's the word for saint. Ahasede
Is A Saint Pasadena are the saints?