I do . And the scripture says , fear of man is a snare , but the way to displace the fear of man is not just to try really hard to fear man less , but to displace it with the fear of the Lord . And the freedom that the fear of the Lord brings is to free us for our purpose … which is we are Christ ’ s workmanship … with good works that he has decided before we were born , appointed for us to do at this time in history . And I think especially in this age , is just so much noise . It ’ s too easy to get pulled down into the bickering and pulled down into the swamp , and that would be the strategy of the enemy . But the fear of the Lord helps cut through all that rubbish ( for me anyway ), it cuts through and it helps me remember … I ’ ve got to get on with it . I have one life this side of eternity , and I want to spend it all for what will outlast it . And so yeah , that ’ s a line that helps me personally .
[ WM ] Well , that goes with your line “ We ’ ve got work to do ” which is great . But speaking of Keith Green , my church has asked me to play bass . I ’ m not a bass player , so I ’ ve had to try to pick up the bass and join the worship team . And it ’ s really funny as I ’ m not used to reading charts , but I want to serve my little church . So the Keith Green line that came to me right before we took the platform the last time I played was , “ Help me to never reach for a crown , but my reward is giving you glory ”. Keith Green in his own way was just kicking me in the spiritual bottom and setting my attitude right .
I caught your podcast with Martin Smith from Delirious , and I had the honor of being a concert promoter back in the day and I promoted three different tours of Delirious through Washington and Oregon . It was amazing . They ’ re my favorite “ live ” worship band . They were a band ’ s band , they could follow Martin wherever he wanted to go , at any moment , they could take off and follow him . Tell us how the music of Delirious impacted your life ?
[ Brooke ] Oh my gosh ! I mean , I could cry talking about it . I mean , there ’ s people who God anointed to shape generations . And Martin is one of those people . So was Keith
Martin Smith Podcast
( Green ) and so was Rich ( Mullins ). But I have been so moved by and I ’ m so glad that you bring them up because even in the past few days , I ’ ve been in meetings with people and I have brought up Delirious . And a lot of people here Stateside don ’ t know who Delirious are . I always have to remember , “ Oh , that ’ s right . It ’ s different here ”. But certainly , where I grew up in New Zealand and Australia , and particularly in my early years at Hillsong , Delirious was who we were all obsessed with it . I mean , we had never heard lyrics of worship written in this way and produced in this way . I mean , even now the production still blows you away . You listen to some of these songs now and they ’ re 20 years old , but they sound like they could have just been recorded .
One really cool full-circle thing is that my friend Sam Gibson mixes my records . He mixed 7 and he mixed 8 . And we actually met a million years ago . He ’ s a Kiwi . We met in New Zealand when he was actually running the board , and I was a new artist . He was interning at Neil Finn ’ s studio Roundhead in Auckland . And then he went on to apprentice with Chad Blake and work on a bunch of incredible mixes and different engineers . But Sam went on to actually mix some of those really influential Delirious records .
But yeah , to answer your original question , I think Delirious and Martin and his writing continues to leave such a huge impression on me . One of the songs that ’ s influenced me the most , probably isn ’ t even a big one that even Delirious fans would know immediately , but it ’ s a song off their album Mezzamorphis which is called “ Kiss Your Feet ”. And the words are , “ All I have in this world , is more than a king , I could ever wish for , all these crowns leave me
cold , for I was born to kiss your feet ”. And it ’ s a song that never fails just to bring me back to this is why I ’ m alive … it ’ s just to kiss the feet of Jesus … and lay my life and my worship and all my crowns at his feet . And that is the ultimate place of my deepest delight .
[ WM ] That ’ s amazing Brooke . I had the honor of being on the side of the stage at the Creation Festival in Pennsylvania , when Delirious first hit America , and they were in front of 50,000 people . And you could tell in the audience , something new was happening . There was a change in the atmosphere . I mean , it was incredible . And Martin will look back and say that actually he had an uncomfortable night because he wasn ’ t used to that big of a physical stage . The Creation Festival had a huge stage . Martin was used to playing these smaller venues and he was not used to covering that large of a stage area . But to me that night was a seed change . There was a shift in worship music that happened when Delirious showed up on the shores of America .
[ Brooke ] That ’ s so cool that you got to witness that . A front row seat to history . That ’ s amazing .
[ WM ] Well , I ’ ve been around a long time . ( laughing ) I want to jump to a follow up from the last time you were in our magazine . We of course were excited about your Martin 000- 28 Brooke Ligertwood Signature acoustic guitar and we reviewed it . Great guitar ! I did the interview with you for C . F . Martin ’ s Journal magazine too . We also placed it in one of our BUYER ’ S GUIDES .
You told the story that years ago a young woman sacrificially gave you a Martin guitar , and that all these years later you wanted to bless her back for sowing into your life by giving her one of your Martin Signature guitars . What happened ?
[ Brooke ] Yes , so I managed to track her down . She wasn ’ t easy to track down , but I tracked her down and I emailed her , and I told
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