Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.48UNLIKELY
Fear
0.13UNLIKELY
Joy
0.57LIKELY
Sadness
0.54LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.55LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.47UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.84LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.65LIKELY
Extraversion
0.18UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.9LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.6LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
ATTENTION
I'm just trying to change the world, one sequin at a time."
So spoke one of today’s popular entertainers.
She has had a number of more controversial quotes, however.
She also said:
"I want women -- and men -- to feel empowered by a deeper and more psychotic part of themselves.
The part they're always trying desperately to hide.
I want that to become something that they cherish.
"I'm telling you a lie in a vicious effort that you will repeat my lie over and over until it becomes true"
When she was called by one of her interviewers, “The Billy Graham of pop,” she said that she wants to “free (her fans) of their fears and make them feel . . .
that they can create their own space in the world.
I am teaching people to worship themselves.”
She further said, “I’ve been trained to love my darkness . . .
I don’t want 5 dollars in your pocket, I want your soul.”
These are all quotes of Lady Gaga.
She make think she’s innovative, but, quite honestly, her heart only reflects the tired mantra of another public figure who sought to teach rebellion.
It was Satan who said, “I will be like the Most High.”
It was Satan who began this whole practice of teaching people to “worship themselves.”
And it is Satan who continues to tempt you and me to trade our God-focus for self-worship.
And self-worship, while it may yield temporary thrills, sort of like attending a Lady Gaga concert, the thrill quickly fades to guilt and an overwhelmingly sad meaninglessness in life that we soon discover to be a dead end.
Which just leads me to our text for today.
In Psalm 51, we have the confession of David.
This great King and psalm-writer took the self-worship road for a while.
He discovered quickly, however, that it dead-ended in guilt and despair.
You remember the story.
David, out of his own desire for self-gratification, stole Bathsheba’s affections and tried to cover up his sin by murdering her husband.
We’ve already talked about the first part of this psalm when we discussed how God can bring joy back to those who struggle with guilt.
But, as I was studying this psalm, I found another lesson in here about joy.
Read with me Ps 51:14-19.
I believe these verses tells us of the connection between joy and worship.
You see, I believe there is a definite connection.
Real worship brings joy.
NEED
Now I know that many of you, when you hear that I want to talk to you about worship, may lose what little interest you may have had in listening to this message.
You’re pretty much uninterested.
The reason is that you find the whole “worship experience” thing to be rather boring.
You come, you mouth every other word of a worship song, and leave in check-off mode.
You say, “Yep, went to church today.
I’ll just check that off my performance list.”
You’re like the group of people the prophet spoke of when he said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
I believe that today, God wants to pour the gasoline of the Holy Spirit on the wood of your heart and ignite some of you with the passion of Worship.
Others of you are not uninterested, you are inhibited.
You have thought that worship was an inward thing only.
You look at people who raise their hands in worship and think that they just want to put on a show, but there’s a little hand-raising in your own heart, you just won’t acknowledge it.
Quite frankly, you quench the Spirit in your worship.
He is moving you, but you refuse to respond.
I think God wants to free you up.
I believe He wants you not just to agree with worship internally, but to experience it externally.
And others of us are empty.
You lack joy and the fullness of the Spirit in your heart.
You know that the Christian life should be one of joy in the Lord, but it’s not for you.
The reason could very well be that, while you’ve become a believer, you’ve not really become a worshiper.
I believe God wants to show you the deep joy that comes when you actually fulfill the purpose for which He created you: Worship.
So just what is this connection between worship and joy.
How can genuine worship bring joy.
Well this Psalm shows us how.
In the first place, if I want my worship to bring real joy, I must understand that:
DIV 1: REAL WORSHIP CONNECTS
EXP
I think I’d be pretty close to the mark if I said that most of our worship fails to really connect with God.
David recognizes this, I think, when he says in v 16, For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offerings.
Now, we don’t bring animals to God anymore, nor burn the flesh of a lamb to sacrifice to God anymore, but David’s instruction still relates to our own worship of God.
As one commentator said, Sacrifices that fulfill the letter of the law and express mere conformity to that letter but are accompanied by no inner feeling . . .
are futile.
In our day we would say it like this: There must be reality!
Singing worship choruses or hymns with little forethought is futile.
Going through the motions of prayer without any real connection to God is useless.
Coming to church because it is what is expected and not because you desire to worship God does you little good.
There must be reality if worship is to connect.
And if there is to be reality, there must also be repentance.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
A forgiven sinner alone knows what it means to be broken.
Someone wrote, When a man has sinned, and the hammer of God’s law has crushed his heart in true repentance, and he has a contrite heart . . . he is ready for God’s further work on him.
Someone else wrote,
All that David can offer to the Lord in worship then is his shattered “spirit,” his “broken … heart,” that is, the very center of his being, himself.
Sin has “broken” him; judgment has “broken” him.
But even more than this, when we discover God’s mercy in His incredible love for us in our sin—here is the final breaking.
As our heart sobs, the Lord puts His arms around us.
When we see Jesus expelling demons, forgiving sins, cleansing lepers, and hanging on the cross—then we are finally “broken.”
We are among those who are forgiven much and who therefore love much.
You see, pure worship incubates in the heat of brokenness.
When we see our sin, we are broken by our failure.
Like Peter, who denied the Lord three times, we meet the eyes of our loving Lord and we are compelled to go out and weep bitterly.
When we see God’s judgment against our sin, we are broken by our fear.
We know we stand under the awful judgment of God and, without His mercy we are done.
But, oh, when we see God’s mercy, we are broken by His love.
Our heart does, indeed sob at the wonderful grace of Jesus.
O, how we must learn the lesson of James 4 over and over again: God opposes the proud, but given His grace to those who are broken in humility.
And if for one instant, you don’t think you need that grace this morning, you are in great need of a fresh glimpse of your sin, His judgment and His mercy.
ILL
Gordon MacDonald spoke of this in his chapter in the book, Mastering Personal Growth.
He wrote that the older he became the more he realized his condition as a barbarian loved by his Father.
He said that this may be the most important insight that comes with aging.
Almost all old people who are growing have certain common traits.
One of them is that they know without equivocation that they are sinners.
And they’ve come to appreciate the central importance of grace.
He goes on to tell about a friendship he had with a man in his seventies and eighties.
His name was Lee. Lee was a godly man who brought the most unusual people to Jesus.
One day they were having breakfast, and Lee told him about a recent trip he’d taken to Boston.
“As I drove toward the city,” Lee said, “I realized that I was going to be parking my car and walking through the combat zone (Boston’s notorious red-light district).
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9