Sermon Tone Analysis

Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 81, that’s on page 329 of the white pew Bible.

Psalm 81 is a Psalm attributed to Asaph and it’s right in the middle of Book 3 of the Psalter.

The Psalms, if you’ve never noticed, are divided up into 5 different books within the book — Book 3 includes Psalms 73-89.

And it’s been called by some scholars the Dark Book of the Psalms.

The psalms found in book 3 are often, though not all, psalms of pain, of repentance, of crying out to God for help in the midst of struggle.

I was pleased that the Lectionary had Psalm 81 as the text for today because…it leads into the miniseries we are beginning next week about the revitalization of the Church.

And I’m using the word revitalize intentionally.

Let me tell you something I firmly believe — and praise the Lord for this fact — this church does not need a revival.

This church does not need a revival.

But it does need, and if I’m being honest, it critically needs, revitalization.

OK, you might say, that’s some ridiculous semantics right there.

But I don’t think so, because there is a great truth of God declared when I say that the church, our church does not need a revival.

Revival means to bring what was once dead to life.

And praise the Lord, what God has raised to new life in His Son, the members of this church and any church, cannot be destroyed.

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.

Yes, we always carry the death of Jesus in our body, but it is so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.

Certainly, we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, but it is so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh.

We have been using the term revival wrong.

The church doesn’t need a revival.

The world needs revival.

The world is dead and needs the regeneration of the Holy Spirit to revive it and bring it to faith in Christ.

The Church needs revitalization.

We’re not dead, we are alive in Christ.

However...We are alive in Christ but our vitals are weak.

Yes, we are alive in Christ but we’re coding in our beds.

We’re alive in Christ, but members of our body have been amputated.

We are alive in Christ Gore Springs Baptist Church, but our heartbeat is nearly imperceptible.

And Psalm 81 zeroes in on the heartbeat of God’s people.

So here’s our big idea from this Psalm:

Big Idea

The heartbeat of a church is her posture of worship, and true worship begins with remembrance and repentance.

The heartbeat of a church is her posture of worship, and true worship begins with remembrance and repentance.

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You’ve already heard part of this Psalm read today and we’ve sung it, so let me read it in its entirety, then we’ll pray and look closely at our desperate need for true worship if we are going to be a church with a discernable heartbeat.

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Psalm 81 CSB

For the choir director: on the Gittith.

Of Asaph.

Sing for joy to God our strength; shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.

Lift up a song—play the tambourine, the melodious lyre, and the harp.

Blow the ram’s horn on the day of our feasts during the new moon and during the full moon.

For this is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

He set it up as a decree for Joseph when he went throughout the land of Egypt.

I heard an unfamiliar language:

“I relieved his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from carrying the basket.

You called out in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you from the thundercloud.

I tested you at the Waters of Meribah.

Selah

Listen, my people, and I will admonish you.

Israel, if you would only listen to me!

There must not be a strange god among you; you must not bow down to a foreign god.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel did not obey me.

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own plans.

If only my people would listen to me and Israel would follow my ways,

I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes.”

Those who hate the Lord would cower to him; their doom would last forever.

But he would feed Israel with the best wheat.

“I would satisfy you with honey from the rock.”

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Almighty God, shine on us by your Word so that we will not be blind nor willfully seek darkness; but rouse us by your words, and stir us up more and more to fear your name and present ourselves as living sacrifices to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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I love this Psalm, because it’s a miniature worship service in itself.

Verses 1-5 serve as a call to worship, then the Lord speaks to His people in the next two verses, reminding them of what He has done for them and then He ends with a call to repentance and a promise of blessing if they will do so.

There's not much of a better liturgy than that.

This morning, I want to answer two questions, both of which are suggested in our Big Idea.

Remember our Big Idea this morning: The heartbeat of a church is her posture of worship, and true worship begins with remembrance and repentance.

The two questions I want to answer are these:

What is the proper posture of worship?

How should our hearts be positioned as we worship?

How can a church assume that posture?

That is, what necessary action or actions must a church take in order to assume the proper heart posture of worship?

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The church must be a people who worship.

Our Psalm opens with a call to worship God:

Sing for joy

shout in triumph

Lift up a song

play various instruments

Blow the shofar on the feast days

We are a people who are called by God to worship Him.

Verse 4:

Psalm 81:4 CSB

For this is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

The Holy God demands our worship.

Yes, it is a privilege and an honor and a blessing to worship the Lord…but it is also our duty.

In the Scriptures, God commands all men to worship Him in Spirit and in truth and failure to do so is the essence of sin.

We are called to be a worshipful people.

What is worship, exactly?

Worship is praising, adoring, and revering God for who He is.

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False Worship

And the Bible is filled with examples of false worship.

Worship in a disobedient manner…remember the story of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abiihu?

Leviticus 10 recounts their story of lighting the sacred altar with “unauthorized fire.”

God had prescribed a specific way that he wanted to be worshipped, a specific way the altar was to be lit.

And even though the end result was the same: the altar did get lit and the incense did get burned, they did it in a way God had not told them and they were killed for it.

Our worship must be in the manner laid out by God in His Word.

We cannot worship in a disobedient way or however we feel like it.

There are many admonitions against insincere worship: of taking the name of God upon your lips but not approaching him with your heart.

Look at what God says about his people through the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 29:13 CSB

The Lord said: These people approach me with their speeches to honor me with lip-service, yet their hearts are far from me, and human rules direct their worship of me.

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Jesus himself calls out those who would worship the Lord without humility and reverence.