Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION:

I’ve always liked hearing oxymorons, or self-contradicting phrases.

The word itself comes from “oxus” which means sharp and “moros” which means dull.

Here are some of my favorites.

\\ \\ Jumbo shrimp \\ \\ Freezer burn \\ \\ White chocolate \\ \\ Plastic silverware \\ \\ Airline food \\ \\ Sanitary landfill \\ \\ Truthful tabloids \\ \\ Professional wrestling \\ \\ And, here’s another self-contradictory phrase: boring worship.

That reminds me of the little boy who asked his mother if she could remember the highest number she ever counted to.

The mother didn’t know so she asked him about his highest number.

He answered, “5,372.”

The mother was puzzled and asked him why he stopped at that particular one.

The boy responded, “Well…church was over.”

\\ \\ In various surveys, when people are asked why they don’t go to church, they often reply that church is just too boring.

While I recognize that sometimes a church service can seem dull, especially to a non-Christian, I want to suggest this morning that true worship is anything but boring.

The very essence of what worship is does not allow us to be bored.

When we come before the majestic God of the universe, who has created everything and has done amazing things in our lives, we can’t help but break out into adoration.

My personal background as Song Leader, Music Director

Today Worship is: Worship Leader + Band and Singing = Worship

"Confessions of a Worship Leader"

Most Americans tend to worship at their work, work at their play, and play at their worship!

Jamestown, VA.

It is one of the earliest English-speaking settlements in the new world, & it has been carefully restored so that we can see what life was like 350 years ago.

At Jamestown, you’ll discover many interesting things about our country.

You’ll learn that when this settlement was first established, most of the people built rather humble huts for their families.

But right in the middle of Jamestown they erected an imposing church building as a testimony to all who came, that the people of Jamestown put God first.

They had 2-hour worship services every day of the week, & attendance was mandatory.

If you didn’t show up for the daily service, your day’s ration of food would not be given you.

Their reasoning was, if you were too sick to go to church, you were too sick to eat.

They had a 5-hour service on Sunday, & you were expected to be there all 5 hours.

If you missed church for 3 weeks, they would put you in stocks for 6 weeks out on the church lawn.

The stocks are still there for all to see.

Maybe they went a bit too far.

But it seems to me the lesson which comes through loud & clear is that in this original settlement, the people wanted to communicate clearly that God came first.

\\ I do believe that worship is the church’s—and the individual Christian’s—highest priority.

True worship comprises and fulfills all these other characteristics of the church Christ builds.

The church that sets its focus on God will find that all other things fall naturally into place.

Here is precisely the problem with the market-oriented, user-friendly, pragmatic approach to ministry: it is man-centered, not God-centered.

Its concern is what people desire, not what God demands.

It sees the church as existing for people’s sake rather than for God’s sake.

It works from a faulty blueprint rather than fulfilling the plan of the Master Builder.

User-friendly, entertainment-oriented, market-driven, pragmatic churches will probably continue to flourish for a while.

Unfortunately, however, the whole movement is based on current fashion and therefore cannot last long.

When the fickle winds finally change, one of three things may happen.

These churches will fall out of vogue and wane; or they will opt to change with the spirit of the age and very likely abandon any semblance of biblical Christianity; or they will see the need to rebuild on a more sure foundation.

My prayer, of course, is that they will take the third course of action and not wait until worldliness and compromise have so permeated their fellowships that it becomes impossible to change.

Charles Spurgeon wrote, “It is hard to get leaven out of dough, and easy to put it in.…

Oh that those who are spiritually alive in the churches may look to this thing, and may the Lord himself baffle the adversary!”

I. WORSHIP - GOD SEEKS IT - John 4:23

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

A. Everyone is a worshipper - Rom. 1:25 "who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen."

But because of sin, many are blind and put their trust in worthless objects.

B. When Jesus spoke of true worship, He described it as worship “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24).

What He meant was that emotion and truth in combination constitute true worship.

Our worship of God must be based on truth, yet should also involve the emotions.

It should be our goal to encourage the proper components in worship.

The hymns and special music, as well as the pastoral prayer and sermon, must articulate truth.

Yet they should also stir the emotions and activate the will.

C. It is not the location or the external forms of worship that really matter, but the attitude of the worshiper’s heart toward God.

Deepening our worship is not accomplished by more formal liturgy; indeed, that may actually be counterproductive.

A deepening of true worship occurs when the heart of the worshiper becomes more earnest and when the truth consumes the mind of the worshiper.

All worship not offered in spirit and in truth is utterly unacceptable to God—no matter how beautiful the external forms.

II.

WRONGFUL WORSHIP - FALSE GODS

A. Approximately half of everything the Bible says about worship condemns false worship.

The first two of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions against false worship.

Ex. 20:2-5   And God spoke all these words, saying:

2     “I /am/ the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3     “You shall have no other gods before Me.

4     “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness /of anything/ that /is/ in heaven above, or that /is/ in the earth beneath, or that /is/ in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.

For I, the Lord your God, /am/ a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth /generations/ of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

B. Consider how much of the Old Testament describes the evil consequences of false worship.

Cain and Abel, the Israelites and golden calf at Sinai, Nadab and Abihu’s offering of strange fire, King Saul’s intrusion into the priest’s office, Eli’s wicked sons who pilfered what was offered to God, Elijah’s confrontations with Jezebel and the priests of Baal, and Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image are all variations on this same theme: God does not accept worship not offered in spirit and in truth.

C.

Many people foolishly believe God will accept anything offered by well-meaning worshipers.

It is clear, however, that sincerity is not the test of true worship.

All self-styled or aberrant worship is utterly unacceptable to God.

D. Scripture outlines at least four categories of unacceptable worship: worship of false gods, worship of the true God in a wrong form, worship of the true God in a self-styled manner, and worship of the true God with a wrong attitude.

The God of the Bible is the only God, and He is a jealous God who will not tolerate the worship of another.

In Isa.

48:11, God says, “My glory will I not give to another.”

Exodus 34:14 says, “You shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

E. Everyone worships—even atheists.

Atheists worship themselves.

When people reject God, they always worship false gods of their own choice.

Those gods are not necessarily personalities.

People may worship money, material things, popularity, or power.

All those things are as idolatrous as worshiping a stone god—idolatry which is precisely what God forbade in the first and second commandments.

Most people who worship material things do so without the consciousness that they are worshiping deities.

Is that still idolatry?

Absolutely.

F.

Even today, people formulate supernatural gods, supposed deities.

The rise of the New Age movement has produced a revival of pagan religions.

People today are worshiping earth goddesses, animals, spirit beings, and even mythological deities on a scale unknown since before the Middle Ages.

That is nothing more than demon worship.

First Corinthians 10:20 says that things sacrificed to idols are really sacrificed to demons.

"Rather , that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons."

Therefore, if people worship false beings, they are actually worshiping the demons that impersonate those false gods.

III.

WRONGFUL WORSHIP - WORSHIPPING THE TRUE GOD IN A WRONG FORM

A. Exodus 32:7–9 records God’s response when the Israelites made a golden calf to worship: 7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down!