Why I Stopped Singing Gratitude (by Brandon Lake)

Speaker 1 I’ve stopped singing the song Gratitude by Brandon Lake, and you might want to stop also. I’ll tell you why. And then I’ll tell you the number one thing you should look for in songs that you choose to sing for your church. And I want to say it’s not because I don’t like Brandon Lake. In fact, I think he is the number one Christian artist out there right now. I love his melodies, his arrangements, his lyrics, his artistry. In my opinion, he’s number one. I love you, Brandon Lake. So why am I not going to sing your song anymore? Well, let me explain why I chose to stop singing Gratitude and why you might want to also. I pulled up the lyrics here, and I just want to highlight a few things. Look at this. My, I, I, my, I, I. And then here it is you. So we’ve got one you and how many I’s, six I’s and my’s. And then I’ve got one response. I’ve got just one move. With my arm stretched wide, I will worship you. So literally, the song only mentions God twice. I mean, maybe a few more times than that.

Speaker 1 But do you understand what I’m trying to show you here? You’ve got this song, and it’s all about who? Me. It’s all about I, how much I love God. And listen, there are Psalms that follow a similar pattern where David is talking about how he is going to just live for the Lord forever and all these things. But overall, really, you only have two lines about God. Biblical worship is always revelation, then response. We see God revealed clearly, and then we respond in reverent worship. That’s biblical worship. You see God, you respond to God. But there’s not a lot of God in this song, and there’s not a lot of substance in this song about God and who he is. I found in my own ministry that the best response from my church is when the songs are packed full of truths about God. Packed full of truths about God. Think about the difference between Gratitude, which we just looked at, and a song like Great I Am, which says, The mountains shake before you, the demons run and flee. At the mention of your name, King of Majesty, there is no power in hell nor any who can stand before the power and the presence The Great I Am.

Speaker 1 Wow. That is a song that is boom, powerful, packed full of truths about God’s character, his power, his might, his attributes. And it amps you up. You’re like, Dang, I want to respond to this massive, infinite, powerful God. I want to respond in worship. And so the number one thing you should look for when you’re picking songs for your church is to make sure that your songs are full, packed full of truths about God, that they are primarily focused on who God is, his attributes, and his work. So either who he is or what he’s done. Those are the two things you want to make sure that your songs are including. And then I also like to make sure my songs are singing to God. There is a place for horizontal songs where we’re singing to the other believers around us, but I like songs that are singing to God directly. Ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. And I’ll tell you why this matters. The stronger the songs you choose, the more biblical, the more rich they are, the more passionately your church will respond in worship. If you want your church to respond better in your times of worship, pick better songs.

Speaker 1 And if you build sets that are packed full of rich biblical songs, you’ll have better sets and you’ll have a greater response from your church. And I’m going to link three free resources for you below. Number one is a free guide on how to determine strong biblical songs. So grab that free guide. The second thing I’m going to link is a list of 101 congregationally friendly songs, songs that I’ve found to be biblically rich, singable, God-centered. And then the third free resource is a free e-book that I wrote that will teach you how to build musically cohesive Christ centred worship sets. So grab any of those three resources below this video in the description or the show notes if you’re listening to audio only. Now, there are occasionally times where we want to sing a song like Gratitude, a song of response, an adoration, or perhaps a song of recommitment to the Lord. But I would say you only want to sing those songs if the rest of your set is packed full of truths about God’s nature and God’s work. Only then do songs like Gratitude make sense because you’ve told the church about God through the other songs, and now you use Gratitude perhaps at the end or the third to last song.

Speaker 1 I usually like to do the last song on my set as a God-centered song, but only then does that make sense. Or maybe perhaps at a Thanksgiving service, you can sing Gratitude, right? That makes sense. But as for me, even though I love you, Brandon Lake, even though you’re handsome and talented and all those things, I’m going to put this song on the back burner, and I’m only going to pull it out when it’s very, very appropriate for a service. Make sure you are picking strong songs for your church to sing. It’s very important. You are a shepherd, and you’re putting words on people’s mouth to give God praise. So let me know what you think. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Do you think I’m completely out of my mind? Leave a comment and let me know. And while you’re down there, hit the subscribe button. But be sure to grab those three freebies below to help you find better songs and to elevate your worship sets. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the next video. God bless. See you soon.