Sermon Tone Analysis

*WHAT DID WE COME HERE FOR?*

*Isaiah 1:12-17*

 

Let me read to you a description of God's reaction to a worship service held a long time ago.

It is recorded in the first chapter of Isaiah, Verses 12 through 17.

There God says:

 

*  "When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?*

* *

*Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Their incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations --I cannot bear your evil assemblies.*

* *

*Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates, They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.*

* *

*When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you, even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.*

* *

*Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds out of my sight!*

* *

*Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

*

*{Isa 1:12-17 NIV}*

 

These verses tell us that God looks at worship differently than we do because he reads our hearts.

These words reveal that worship is not something we do.

Worship does not deal with what we make our bodies do, (either singing, kneeling, or praying), but worship consists of who we are, what our heart is feeling.

This is the aspect of worship I want to talk about this evening.

I understand that my generation is sometimes befuddled with the younger generations and the changes that have come along in music styles, forms of expression, etc.

I would counsel the younger generations to stop and listen to some of the music from long ago—some of the hymns that seem so ‘old-fogey’.

It would be a great assignment for our youth to do a study of the hymns of the church—the authors—and how God birthed in them those great anthems of praise and worship.

For they not only lead you into a closer relationship with God, they constantly teach theology from the Word of God.

I hope we don’t lose them completely from our churches.

While this is true, we understand that we are not going back to yesteryear.

The culture is changing, styles are changing, but as you heard in the musical a few weeks ago on Seniors Day—“The Gospel Never Changes”.

It is startling to realize that everyone worships!

Everybody!

Everywhere! Worship is the fundamental drive of life.

ü  Atheists worship.

ü  Infidels worship.

ü  Skeptics worship.

ü  Even Republicans and Democrats worship.

ü  Lawyers, insurance agents, and even

 

ü  Internal Revenue Service agents worship!

All people worship for worship is the fundamental difference between humans and animals.

Animals do not worship.

They have no sense of the beyond.

But God has placed eternity in man's heart, as the book of Ecclesiastes tells us {Eccl 3:11}.

This urge causes men everywhere to worship.

If they are not worshipping the true God, they are worshipping a god of their own composition.

Worship, therefore, is a universal phenomenon.

The word comes from the old English /worth-ship,/ which means, /"to ascribe worth or value to something or someone."/

There are two forms of worship.

From the Christian point of view there is true worship and there is false.

The worship of all the people on earth fall into these two categories.

Basically, everyone worships.

Worship is a human condition.

The only question is: Are you engaging in true worship or false?

True worship, of course, involves a God who is actually there, and who is worthy of worship.

False worship adores an idol or an image of a god, an imaginary god, an illusion, something that really is not there; or if there, is not worthy of worship.

But everybody worships in one-way or the other.

Tonight we shall look at what it means to gather in a corporate experience of worship.

I seek an answer to this basic question:

 

*/What did we come here for?

/*

 

Through the years I have observed many reasons why people come to church.

I have been listening to them for many years, and I probably have heard them all.

* Most people come because they derive some personal benefit which they may be hardly aware of or which they cannot articulate clearly.

They simply say, "I just like church.

It helps me.

It does something for me."

That is rather vague, but nevertheless is an adequate reason for coming.

We do many things on the basis of simple enjoyment.

* Other people come because they feel a need for meeting people, for being with others, for socializing.

That is not quite as good a reason as the above, but it is understandable because we are social creatures.

We like to be where other people are, at least for most of the time.

* Some, I am sorry to say, come because they feel they have to.

There may be some teenagers here who feel that way.

There may be children present who would not otherwise come but their parents have made them come.

That is not necessarily a bad reason.

Although it should not be done with cruelty or with insistence against a very strong or determined will, nevertheless, it is responsible parental behavior to train our children to come to church and to bring them for that purpose.

* Some like to come because they enjoy the music and the singing.

They appreciate hearing people raise their voices in a harmonic expression of their faith.

They like the words of the great hymns, or enjoy the music of a great worship choruses, or a great choir.

I personally enjoy the singing of hymns.

I feel they are a tremendous way to teach theology.

I hope you do not ever sing hymns that you do not listen to while you are singing.

It is amazing how many people enjoy hearing hymns and choruses sung, even though they don't agree with the words.

* But at least some people come because they like the preaching.

I do hope that is why you are here tonight.

People say, "I do like to hear a good message.

It makes me think."

That is a good reason because the Scriptures are designed to make us think.

They are contrary to the spirit of the age in which we live, so they make us face up to issues, and ask questions about things.

This is a helpful reason for coming to church.

Some like the preaching, of course, because it makes them /sleep/!

Someone has said that preaching is the art of talking in someone else's sleep.

If the sermon is so empty of content that people drift off to sleep, I always feel that they ought either to arise greatly strengthened, or awake greatly refreshed!

One man said that the sermons he listened to reminded him of the coffee can at home, which had on it the words "vacuum packed!"

None of these reasons are really wrong (except the last one, of course).

But whatever may be the reason you come to church, most people feel they come for a good reason and that their reason is the correct one.

Yet, even then, there is a wide range of expectations of what a church worship service ought to be.

If we tried to choose everything that individuals wanted in a service, we would be engaged in endless controversy.

Some want more ritual.

People have said to me, "Why don't we ever sing the doxology?"

or "Why don't we have the Lord's prayer?" or "Why don't we recite the Apostles' Creed?"

I have no objections to these additions.

They are wonderful expressions of truth if they are done meaningfully.