Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Worship means to give something worth or to ascribe to it value.

It means to put it in its rightful place.

You ascribe worth or give value to something by how much of your resources you spend on it, resources like time and money.

True worship is based on a right understanding of God’s nature, and it is a right valuing of God’s worth.

Worship is not limited to just singing hymns and songs at church.

Worship is not even limited to just singing songs to God.

Worship that is merely formal actions is unacceptable.

True worship is a valuing or a treasuring of God above all things.

Praise is the natural response of believers to God at all times and in all places, involving adoration in music and song.

God himself assists believers to praise him through his spirit.

Worship is turning to God in awe, praise and joy, as his people realize how wonderful he is.

Prayer is a natural part of worship: to know God is to want to worship him and pray to him.

Singing specifically though is a gift from God that all believers should partake in when given the chance.

To be in a worship and stand idly by and not partake in worship is grieving to God.

Every Christian should partake in Praise and Worship and should never sit idly by when others are worshipping.

There are two kinds of singing worship.

There is corporate worship and there is private worship.

Communal is when you are with others, usually in a church service or a group setting, singing to God.

And private is when you are alone, just you and your God and your singing to Him, like when you’re driving alone and jamming out to some elevation music.

Both are necessary for the Christian.

You should sing to God in corporate worship as often as possible and you should sing to God in private worship every opportunity you get.

Thought

1) A Heart Full of Love Worships (v.

14)

a) The preparation for worship

What does it mean to put on charity?

We know that charity just means love.

In order to put love on, you must first put some things off.

Look at verse 8

When you got saved, you became a new person, a new creature, a new man.

Because Christ has made you into a new creature, you must put off the things of your former life, because that is not who you are anymore.

You are a new person in Christ.

Ephesians 4:22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

So you are to put off the old way of life.

It’s a command.

*Were gonna have a fashion show!

**Illustration of clothes; putting off and putting on

That’s not who you are anymore.

Look at verse 8 again in Colossians.

You are not a person of anger, malice, blasphemy, how about this one: filthy communication, lying.

You are to put these things off and put on the new things of Christ.

And the most important character of Christ that you can put on, according to verse 14, is love.

You must have love.

You must be clothed with love.

And hey, people see clothes.

People notice what your wearing.

Whether its raggedy old hand me downs or brand new attractive clothes.

And people will see what spiritual characteristics your putting on.

People should see that you are putting on love.

So all of this happens before we get to verse 16 where it says we are to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.

When I think of this verse I think of a sponge.

You’re a sponge and you have soaked up all the love of Christ so much that when you are squeezed, His love just overflows and pours out of you.

The way that you can prepare for worship is by putting off the old man and putting on the new man, specifically Christ-like love.

When you consider and realize Christ’s love for you, it should cause you to worship.

Do you realize how much Christ truly loves you?

b) The person of worship

Christmas is coming up, where we celebrate Christ’s birth.

Christ is the person of worship and the only person who deserves your worship.

Christ loved you so much that he stepped off of his throne in heaven to come down and die for His creation, to die for you.

Not only that but He humbled Himself enough and loved you so much that He became a baby.

Do you realize the significance of that?

He had to rely on His own creation for survival.

He peed on Himself.

He pooped on Himself.

He could not feed Himself.

The God who spoke the world into existence, breathed life into Adam, parted the red seas for Moses, shut the mouths of lions for Daniel, almighty God, became a human baby who could not even take care of Himself, all because He loved you and wanted to have a relationship with you.

All that love that Christ has for you should overflow and should be evident to others.

So we see that a heart full of love worships and is the preparation for worship.

2) A Heart Full of the Word Worships (v.

16)

a) The practice of worship

Letting God’s word dwell in you is a practice, it is a self-discipline.

It takes some spiritual effort each day to get up and read the Bible and soak in all the wisdom that you can.

This is another way to prepare for worship.

By reading God’s Word and meditating on it.

Meditating on Scripture carries the image of a cow chewing its cud, we’ve talked about this before.

A cow will eat the grass and hay in the morning and throughout the day he will regurgitate the grass and chew on it some more, then swallow it, then later he’ll regurgitate it and chew on it some more and then swallow it.

And over and over again until he finally digests it.

Meditating on Scripture is the same way.

You ought to wake up and read it in the morning and then all throughout the day be thinking on it and dwelling on it and letting it transform and renew you.

The more you have dwelled on Christ and His Word, the more ready you will be for worship.

The stronger desire you will have for praising Him.

The more you meditate on Scripture, the more intimate that time of singing to God will be.

This is just another reason that we harp over and over on reading the Bible.

It is vitally important to every aspect of your life.

You need to make the decision daily to read God’s Word and have quiet time with Him, letting Him speak to you and you speaking to Him through prayer.

One person said it this way: If believers are to be transformed into the character of Christ, the Word of Christ should find a home in our hearts.

It should not come and go, show up occasionally, or be something we visit like a vacation spot.

It could be said this way: Let the word of Christ have the run of the house of your heart.

Give it plenty of room.

When the word of Christ finds a comfortable home in individual believers and in the new community, there will be positive instruction, correction, and worship evidenced by singing.

Here’s a song about Scripture:

Memorize Scripture.

Memorizing Scripture is a practice that we have lost in modern Christianity.

Read Scripture, so you can meditate on it, so you can memorize it, so you can praise God for it.

So a heart full of love worships,

a heart full of the Word worships,

and

3) A Heart Full of Thankfulness Worships (v.

17)

a) The purpose of worship

Everything we do in this life should be for the God’s glory.