Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome to a new week of the Daily Blade. All right, in my last batch, I refer to a sermon series that Joby did at the Church of 1122 earlier this year called Worship is War. So in the series, he looked at the scriptural truths that could be found in the lyrics of some of the most famous hymns of all time. And so it's very similar to what we did on the Daily Blade week 32 in early August of this year. So that's episodes 154 through 158. But I talked about how when most people in modernity think of quote-unquote worship music, what they're actually thinking about is what's called contemporary Christian music, which is just a specific genre of music that you would expect to hear on any generic Christian radio station. So just think Christian Top 40 or what would be played at some by some band at some mega church, right? So that's what you would expect to hear. Now, if you like that genre of music, then it works out great for you. But if you hear that kind of music and it just doesn't agree with your kind of artistic palette, I guess you could say, then it puts you in a weird spot. Again, because that's what most people consider to be worship music. Now, as opposed to just pointing at guys and saying that there's something wrong with them if they don't like it or want to sing that kind of music, I want to help you guys out. So what I did in that batch uh a week ago or so of episodes was an attempt to broaden your definition of worship music to include a bunch of different genres of music that would not typically get lumped into that category. And that was really helpful. I heard from you guys, it was really helpful to many of you. So I decided to do another run of episodes this week with songs from different genres where we look at the biblical themes and truths from the lyrics. Today we're doing a song called On My Knees from the 2024 album Made by These Moments by one of my favorite bands that I've picked up in the last few years, and that's the country gospel band Red Clay Strays. Now, this band has exploded in popularity in the last couple of years, and many of their songs have explicit references to God, Jesus, the Bible. And if you get some time this week, check out some of their other songs like God Does and Will the Lord Remember Me? I mean, they're just fantastic. But let's dig into On My Knees. So, right from the jump, if you can listen to this song without boogieing, then something might be broken in your soul. Okay. I mean, this is a very danceable song, even if you're not a big dancer. So the song actually starts out with a chorus. So I'll read it here. I'm gonna fall down on my knees and praise the Lord for bringing me peace. I'll lift my hands in his company, for you know I'm grateful for what he has done for me. And guys, you're not in the studio while I'm recording this, but I did kind of like start, you know, tapping my foot there at the very beginning. But right from the beginning of the song, I'm gonna fall down on my knees. So this made me think of Psalm 95, which the ESV titles the section, Let us Sing Songs of Praise. So Psalm 95, verses six and seven say this: Oh, come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. So the posture of our worship is actually a big deal. And you know, what does kneeling symbolize? So it symbolizes reverence, it symbolizes submission, it symbolizes humility, and we would do well to bring that posture to our worship, right? And now from verse two of On My Knees, we have this been barely making ends meet, and I'm hardly scraping by, bill stacked on the table, been messing with my mind. I'm fighting worldly pleasure like I never had before. There's only one thing I can think to do, because I can't take no more. Now, I mean, some of you guys can taste those words, right? I mean, some of us have been there, right? I've been down to my last 75 bucks as an adult, so I can feel that, right? But we can take heart that our burdens can actually be transferred to the Lord. So Psalm 95, 22, cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. In Philippians 4, 6, we see this do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So if you're up against it, just remember that while it is a burden, it can be and should be transferred on to our loving, benevolent Maker. Now the end of the chorus, for you know I'm grateful for what he has done for me. So there is gratitude for what God did for us, which begs the question what precisely did he do for us? God provided his only son Jesus, part of the Godhead, as a propitiation, which is a payment that satisfies for the sin debt that we owe him. And what works must we do in order to attain that gift? Nothing. There are no works. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast. So what can we do to merit salvation? Absolutely nothing. It's God's gift to give, and when he does, we should all be able to sing, for you know I'm grateful for what he has done for me. Guys, check out On My Knees by Red Clay Strays and come back here tomorrow where we'll highlight a worship song from the hip hop genre.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.