Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction: Many of you know that in the early church it was illegal to be a Christian so gathering for worship was truly a risk, because they could round up Christians in bulk and drag them off to prison.
They needed to find a place where ever the police wouldn’t go.
So they met in the Catacombs of Rome.
Romans were really supersticious about death.
They didn’t want to be around it.
So they built underground catacombs so they didn’t have to see graveyards.
They wouldn’t even bury their own dead but would send slaves to do it.
A lot of these slaves became Christians, and when the church was asking where can we meet that they won’t find us.
The slaves were light, we’ve got an idea.
So the first underground church was born.
And no one ever went down there to visit the tombs so they were able to decorate.
Some of the earliest Christian art is on catacomb walls.
They even left things set up from week to week.
It might seem crazy that the church would meet in a graveyard, but they weren’t afraid of death.
In fact death was seen as a release to be with the Lord.
Where they worship was a constant reminder of their own mortality.
And with their dying breath, they wanted to exalt God.
Today we see that an authentic church is one that exalts God.
Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 100. the Psalms are a list of songs sung by the Jewish people in worship to God.
Introduce:
Authentic Principle: An authentic church worships God with a heart of thanksgiving.
Read:
Psalm 100 (ESV)
A Psalm for giving thanks. 1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Authentic Principle: An authentic church worships God with a heart of thanksgiving.
In a short 5 verse Psalm we get a beautiful picture of a hear of worship.
1. Sing praises to God. (Psalm 100:1-2)
Explanation: For many people it will come as no surprise that worship involves singing.
However for me, I have had to spend a lot of time and effort trying to convince people that worship is more than just singing.
From the welcome to the benediction, everything we do in our worship services is worship to God.
Yes, even the sermon is worship.
Even giving is worship.
An authentic church emphasizes the importance of Corporate Worship but also helps people to worship in their own daily lives.
Now while music is more than singing, it’s never less than singing.
Singing is and always has been an integral part of worship.
The entire book of Psalms is the song book of the the Hebrew National Worship....and still is.
There are even some Christians Denominations that exclusively sing Psalms.
There is something called the Regulatory Principle of Worship that says you don’t do anything in worship that is not expressly commanded or demonstrated in the Bible.
Prayer, Scripture Reading, Giving, and yes singing.
Singing is commanded.
Make a joyful noice to the Lord.
Joyful is an attitude.
It doesn’t need to be on key.
Last year, when we were told we could gather in the Worship Center if we didn’t sing, we chose not to…because we believe that to worship without song would violate God’s command to sing.
Illustration: Singing is a powerful way to express emotion.
Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to memorize song lyrics than to remember anything else.
We can struggle to try and remember scripture.
But I bet you can remember every word to a song that told the story of your high school life.
I don’t think that its just a coincidence that the longest book of the Bible is a book of songs.
And something else, if all we had were the Psalms, we’d have every major doctrine of the Christian faith.
Even related to Jesus.
In song!
Application: Sing songs.
Sing good songs.
Sing songs that speak of the majesty of God.
But I don’t know these songs!
Sing a new song.
Let’s face it, I know that there are many contemporary Christian songs that we listen to on K-Love that have terrible theology.
There were also a lot of hymns that had terrible theology as well.
At North Hills, we do evaluate song based on their message and doctrine.
Josh Bingtan used to say that God used each new generation to write new songs that told God’s story for a new generation.
So we sing the old and we sing the new.
But we sing to God.
2. Serve God.
(Psalm 100:3)
Explanation: You might be surprised to see an admonition to serve the Lord in the midst of worship.
Who is the Psalmist talking about?
The worship team?
The Pastor?
The ushers and greeters?
The deacons?
Yes, but it includes all of us.
Worship is an act of service to God.
We serve God when we worship him.
We serve Him when we come into His presence with singing!
We also serve one another.
Again:
There is nothing like being with others all lifting their voices in unison.
I’m always amazed that more people who sing together, the more they meld together in perfect harmony.
I’ve never heard a church singing poorly together.
The louder everyone sings, the better they sound.
Illustration: My seminary puts on a conference every year in March where pastors from around the world gather together to be encouraged by the the word of God.
And there is a lot of singing!
Now I’ll say, the majority of attendees are men.
And there is something about the power of God’s men when they sing.
Not to discount the voices of women, but it’s rare when men sing.
Application: Do you see your singing as service to God?
3. Know the true God (Psalm 100:3)
Explanation: A lot of time when we read the Bible we have the tendency to miss the little things.
For example in verse 3, our translations typically read
Know that the LORD, he is God!
However, whenever you see Lord in all caps in your Bible that means that this is God’s name.
The jewish people took the 3rd Commandment (You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain) that they got to the point they would refused to say it.
When they got to the name in the reading, they would say Adonai, which means Lord.
In the orginial hebrew, they left the consonants of God’s name YHWH.
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