Sermon Tone Analysis

Praise and Worship!!!!

Introduction:

Praise is a natural and necessary response to fully enjoy the object that is praised.

For example, when watching a football game on television, it is a natural response to praise a tremendous play.

To shout WOW! after an acrobatic catch in the end zone is not only natural, but necessary to fully enjoy the spectacular play.

If you do not believe that it is necessary, the next time you watch a football game try to not express yourself at all.

You will quickly find that you do not enjoy the action nearly as much as you do when you have the freedom to express yourself in praise and excitement.

psalm 33:1-

The Grand Finale

psalm 150:1-

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

First of all we will consider the object of worship.

This will require that we answer, in a general sort of way, the question: What is worship?

To do this we shall deal with one statement found in Psalm 150:1; “Praise ye the LORD.”

In this first aspect the emphasis is on “Praise ye the LORD.”

He is the object of worship.

The Psalms put the emphasis upon two things: the fact that He is the Creator, and the fact that He is the Redeemer.

God made this earth on which we live, as well as the universe.

This lovely sunshine that you are enjoying is His.

He is the Creator.

There is not a thing at your fingertips today that He did not make.

He is worthy of our worship because He is the Creator.

He is also worthy of our worship because He is the Redeemer.

He is the only Creator, and He is the only Redeemer.

You see, God works in a field where He has no competition at all.

He has a monopoly on the field of creation and on the field of redemption.

Because of this, He claims from all of His creatures their worship, their adoration, and their praise.

And the Scriptures say that God is a jealous God.

I can’t find where He asks me to apologize for Him for this.

He has created us for Himself.

He has redeemed us for Himself.

On the human level, marriage is used to illustrate the believer’s relationship to Christ.

A husband, if he loves his wife, does not share her with other men.

He is jealous of her.

Her love is to be for him alone.

So believers, called in the Scripture the bride of Christ, are created solely for Him.

He alone is to have our adoration; He alone is to have our praise.

You will recall that John, on the Isle of Patmos, felt constrained to fall down and worship the angel who had been so helpful in bringing all of the visions before him, but the angel rebuked him and said, “… See thou do it not … worship God” (Rev.

22:9).

He does not want even His angels worshiped; He does not want Mary worshiped; He wants none worshiped but Himself.

He alone is worthy of worship.

And Scriptures say there is coming a day when everything that has breath will praise the Lord.

He has created everything that it might praise Him.

WHO IS TO WORSHIP?

God is the object of worship, but this question follows: Who can worship?

The psalmist said: “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.

Praise ye the LORD” (Ps.

150:6).

The emphasis now is upon ye.

He is saying to mankind, “Praise ye the LORD.”

God apparently created man for the purposes of fellowship with Himself and that man might praise Him.

There is no other reason for man’s existence.

What is the chief end of man?

Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

God created the universe that it might glorify Him.

It was not brought into existence for you and me.

In the ages past—how far back we do not know—Job said: “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7).

They were praising God.

And the psalmist said: “For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens” (Ps.

96:5).

He made the heavens that they might be a musical instrument to sing forth His praises throughout the eternal ages of the future.

Although man was created for that high purpose, he got out of harmony, he got out of tune with God.

He got out of fellowship with God.

Perhaps Shakespeare expressed it when he gave to one of his characters in The Merchant of Venice these lines:

There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st

But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young–eyed cherubims;

Such harmony is in immortal souls;

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

(Act V, Scene 1)

Today you and I are living in a created universe that is actually singing praises to God.

But man is out of tune.

Man is in discord.

God’s great purpose is to bring man back into the harmony of heaven.

Let us move on now into the realm of music, about which I know nothing, but have made careful inquiry.

I am reliably informed that on every good pipe organ there are four principal stops.

There is the main stop known as Diapason; then there is the Flute stop; another which is known as the String stop; and then that which is known as Vox Humana (the human voice).

I am told that the Vox Humana stop is very seldom in tune.

If you put it in tune while the auditorium is cold, it would be out of tune when the auditorium is heated.

And if you put it in tune when the auditorium is heated, it would be out of tune when the auditorium got cold.

My beloved, it is hard to keep Vox Humana in tune.

This great universe of God’s is a mighty instrument.

One day Jesus Christ went to the console of God’s great organ, His creation, and He pulled out the stop known as Diapason.

When He did this, the solar and stellar spaces broke into mighty song.

Then He reached over and pulled out the Flute stop, and these little feathered friends, called birds, began to sing.

Then when He reached out and pulled the String stop, light went humming across God’s universe, and the angels lifted their voices in praise.

Then He reached over and pulled out the Vox Humana—but it was out of tune.

The great Organist was not only a musician, He knew how to repair the organ, so He left the console of the organ yonder in heaven, and He came down to this earth.

Through redemption, the giving of His own life, He was able to bring man back into harmony with God’s tremendous creation.

And, my beloved, today the redeemed are the ones to lift their voices in praise.

Only the redeemed are in tune.

The psalmist sings: “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy” (Ps.

107:1–2).

And, brother, if the redeemed don’t say so, no one will!

Oh, to be in tune with heaven!

Today sin has intruded into this world and has taken man out of God’s choir; but individuals can come back in—and many have—through Jesus Christ, the son of David (David, the sweet singer of Israel).

The Lord Jesus Christ has brought man back into a redemptive and right relationship with his Creator and Redeemer so that man can lift his voice in praise to Him.

WHY WORSHIP?

Now we want to answer the question: Why worship?

At this point we move our emphasis over from “Praise ye the LORD to Praise ye the LORD.”

We move the accent over to the verb, to that which is active.

“Praise ye the Lord.“