Music has a unique power over us. Music can radically change how we feel at any given time. Music can take us back to a time and a moment and when we hear the notes, we remember exactly how we felt as if we were literally there again.

This is one of the reasons why worship music is so important in your life. If you are not engaging in a regular routine of worship, you need to! Worship not only encourages your soul, it centers you by placing Jesus in the right place in your life. When you're stressed on the way home from work, listen to worship and watch how it changes your psyche.

Below is a link to our Spotify Worship Playlist.

Music is also something we turn to often times when we can’t find the words to describe how we feel about a situation. You ever heard a song and thought, “YES that’s EXACTLY how I feel!” Sometimes when we’re “lost” and don’t seem to know the way, music helps us. It comforts us because in the middle of the confusion, of the waywardness, it’s like there’s a ray of wisdom or encouragement, a voice and a message, that tends to direct us. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Often times it is a bad thing.

Maybe you’ve had a time in your life when you felt directionless, or at the least, you didn’t know how to solve whatever major issue you were facing.

Maybe you feel that way now.

So what do you do when this happens? Most people rush to 3 things:
- What we feel
- What we want
- What we see as the path of least resistance

What we feel
Easily one of the worst things in the world. Feelings are fickle and circumstantial. If you are being directed solely by how you feel, don’t expect good things. Expect work. Why? The instability that comes with feelings means you are always shooting at a moving target. So you either have to be an expert marksman, or else bring stability to the target. Stability to the target means stop letting how you feel drive.

What we want
Acting based on what you want in a directionless moment is bad. If you are directionless, you by definition don’t know what you want. So we often make decisions based off what we think we want only to find out what we wanted was not what we needed. To stop this we have to abandon our will and embrace God’s.

What we see as the path of least resistance
If given the choice, your flesh will always pick easy over hard. Easy gratifies the flesh, but hard means delayed gratification. In over 35000 locations in 119 countries, McDonalds sells on average 1 billion meals per day. Why? Easy is easier than hard.

There’s a Bible story that highlights these three. It is a story about how a person felt, what they wanted, and the path they took to get there.

Luke 15:11-24
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

This is a story about a confused son who had no clue what he really wanted in life. So rather than honoring his father and choosing wisely, he followed his feelings, wants, and the easy path that led him into destruction. The father didn’t want that for his son, but the son. like you, had to make a decision.

If only there were a song we could learn from today that talks about a wayward son…

Carry on, my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher
But I flew too high
Though my eyes could see, I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think, I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming
I can hear them say

Carry on, my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don't know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about, I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune
But I hear the voices say

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more, no

This song is interesting to me because of the various facets. You have a person who is clearly confused and is making decisions and taking steps based on the three things we discussed earlier. There are a few things to draw out of this today especially in light of the biblical story of the prodigal son.

1. You always have a choice.
We often see a point like this in the context of temptation and sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

With temptation and sin, you always have a choice, and THAT is the way of escape. But choice extends beyond choosing good or bad, righteousness or sin. You can spend your life wandering looking for direction, or you can choose God and his plan for your life.

Kansas guitarist and chief songwriter Kerry Livgren:
”I’ve always been on a spiritual sojourn, looking for truth and meaning. It was a song of self-encouragement. I was telling myself to keep on looking and I would find what I sought.”

What kind of plan is that? The same guy who wrote Carry On My Wayward Son later wrote these words:
Same old song, Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do, Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see
Now don't hang on, Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, And all your money won't another minute buy
Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind

One question: how is all of that wayward wandering and directionless living working out for you?

Isaiah 43:1But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

THE SAME God who created you who formed you, who redeemed you, who called you by name...That SAME God has a plan for you, and that plan is not endless wandering to some hopefully fulfilling conclusion!

I KNOW the plans I have for you says the Lord!
No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him!

If you are wandering and directionless and confused and hopeless then let me lovingly encourage you to abandon the process of Kansas the band and embrace the plan the Lord has for you!

There will always be confusion trying to influence the decision. They will be malicious voices and friendly ones. Family voices and friend voices. You have to be so careful, wise and shrewd, because these voices will sound like the voice of reason and help, but they are voices that abuse and manipulate.

We live in a fallen world and as a result, we will have no shortage of voices that are trying to influence what you choose, but hear me clearly today!
YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE!

A godly decision will always thwart a malicious voice.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days

You DO have a choice to follow God’s plan or wander aimlessly. And voices are trying to influence that decision.

Whether you like it or not, guess what:

2. You are following a voice.
Voices vie for our attention, to influence our decisions.

Political ads in 2022 alone reached an estimated 9.67 billions dollars. An average person sees around 10,000 ads a day. We learned las week there are 86,400 seconds in a day. If you saw 10,000 ads every day for only 1 second, you’d spend 11.57% of your entire day with people trying to influence your decisions.

What about spiritually? What voices speak the loudest in your life?
For me, perhaps my 4 year old, but what about internally? What voices do I listen to the most? Which voices affect my decisions the most? What do I do?

You have to identify the voices. Look at the graphic below:

John 10:14-15, 27
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

You ARE following a voice and you have to determine what voice that is. If it is anything other than the Good Shepherd, you need to ignore it! Or at the least temper that voice with God’s voice and his Word. And remember, God’s written word always trumps his spoken word. Why? The spoken word is subjective to your experience and perception. The written word is eternal and unchanging.

So how do you know the Good Shepherd’s voice?
Moms, the same way you know your kid’s voice in the crowd. Fellas, the same way you know Joe Buck’s voice without looking. If you want to know the Good Shepherd’s voice, you have to spend time with him!

To do that, you need to do this last thing that Kansas couldn’t get:

3. You have to break through the noise.

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher, But I flew too high
Though my eyes could see, I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think, I still was a mad man

Does that sound like a person who has risen above the noise and confusion? I realize “breaking through the noise” can be another one of those churchy phrases, so what does this mean and how do we do this?

Meaning - To weed through all the mess of the voices and distractions, the hurts and wounds of the past, through the anxiety and fear in the present, to get to the truth of what God is saying and doing in your life.

How?
The Word
Hebrews 4:11–13 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Nothing cuts through the noice like the Word.

Simple fix: rather than resorting to confusion and fear, bad choices based on fickle feelings, or jumping to inaccurate conclusions, first figure out what the Word says about your situation.

Google: what does the Bible say about ______

www.openbible.info

In Stillness
Psalm 46:9-10 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

I love that before the stillness, God is at works stopping the war in our minds, breaking the power of the voices in our head, crippling their ability to move around in our headspace, and then he invites us to be still.

When is the last time, rather than having that freak out moment, you quieted yourself and allowed silence as you waiting on the Lord to cut through the noise?

Satan tries to convince us that more thinking, more stressing, and more worry will fix the problem. God says be still, be quiet, think only of one thing. HE IS GOD! His is God of your eternity, your heart, and yes, even that situation you’re dealing with. Sometimes the stillness is just us taking a moment to realize that we aren’t the superhero we think we are, but that HE is.

In Worship
Psalm 22:3 You are enthroned upon the praises of your people.

Let me give you context to this:
vs 1-2: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

You ever felt like that, wayward son or daughter?

vs 4-5: In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Nestled right in the middle of these two passages is v.3 “You are enthroned upon the praises of your people.

Notice the first two verses, the pain, anguish, indecisiveness, the stress, the wayward instability.

Notice the last two verses, the resolve, the relief, the trust, the calm assurance that God would rescue.

What happened?

Worship!
When you worship, you enthrone God, and when you enthrone God, you correct the order in your life and clear off the seat that only he is worthy to sit in. You remind yourself that He IS God and that he is your source. The result is a good decision based on God’s voice breaking through the noise.

So where are you?

Are you calm, assured, and victorious, or are you stressed, wayward, and weary?

Weariness is the result of waywardness, but peace is the result of stability.

Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The Message
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.


But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

The solution for waywardness is running to the arms of the father.

What do you need to do today?
- I need to say yes to Jesus and get out of this wayward cycle.
- I need to give what I am carrying to the Father
- I need to hear your voice today

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?