Sermon Tone Analysis

We are looking this fall at how God calls us as a church to live like Jesus and lead others to do the same.

If you are a guest, know that this is very different than

We are covering six areas God gives us in the Bible that help us accomplish that goal.

We are taking two weeks for each area.

The first week, we are covering the biblical foundation for what we are doing, and the second week is about the practical.

The first area we are tackling is worship.

Last week, we looked at Isaiah 6 for a clear picture of what it looks like when we worship.

We came up with a working definition of worship as time when we reflect on who God is and who we are, and then we respond in repentance and obedience.

We talked last week about what that looks like for us corporately, together as a church.

We said it is more than just singing together, although that is part of it.

It is praying to the God we know, singing songs that remind us of him and who we are and call us to repentance and obedience.

We continue that by looking at his Word together to see the same things.

So, that’s what worship looks like when we get together.

Worship isn’t something that just happens at church at 11:00 on Sundays, though; worship should be a way of life.

How do we get to that point?

This morning, I want to look at three main areas of our life to see what worship can look like in each of those.

These are by no means comprehensive, but hopefully they will help you get better at making worship part of every day of your life.

1) Worship alone.

A. Spend time in the Bible.

It’s hard to reflect on who God is or who he says we are if we don’t know either of those things.

The way we get to know who God is and who we are is by spending time reading the Bible.

Keep in mind that the Bible is written by different people and in different styles.

Some parts, like the letters in the New Testament or some of the Old Testament prophets, have direct statements about who God is, who we are, and what we are to do.

Other parts, like parts of the gospels or books like Genesis, Exodus, 1 & 2 Samuel, and narrative sections like that contain accounts of how God worked in history and how people either did or did not respond.

Worshiping alone involves spending time reading and studying the Bible so you can know who God is and who he says you are.

We talked about some practical tips for how to go about studying the Bible back in the summer, so go to christiansburgbaptist.org and find the sermon titled “Our Response, Part 2” from June 12 2022 for practical questions to ask and ways to get started.

We still have copies of the “How to Study the Bible” handout on our next steps table in the Foyer if you are interested in one of those.

Worshiping alone must involve spending time in the Bible.

Beyond that, we need to:

B. Cultivate a habit of prayer.

As we seek to weave worship through every area of our life, it is absolutely essential to cultivate a habit of prayer.

We are going to spend more time talking about how and why we pray over the next two weeks, but for this week, I want to challenge you to make prayer a habit.

There should be a time every day when you spend an extended period of time talking with God in prayer.

We talked several weeks ago about Martin Luther and the fact that he spent three hours a day in prayer.

That’s a lot, and it would be wonderful if we all were that way.

However, God works differently in each of us, so we aren’t all cut out to pray that way.

Even great men of God don’t always pray in long extended stretches all the time.

I think of Adrian Rogers, one of the best preachers of the last century.

He said, “I am not often long in prayer, but I am also not often long without it.”

In other words, Dr. Rogers may not have spent 3 hours in prayer at one time, but he likely didn’t go three hours without praying.

That gets to this idea of prayer as a habit.

In a simple command, Paul tells us to:

That doesn’t mean we walk around with our head bowed and eyes closed all the time.

Instead, we seek to keep an inner dialogue going with God throughout the day.

The habit of prayer isn’t just taking 20-30 minutes in one chunk to pray, although that is part of it.

It is also about taking a few moments before you go into a meeting to pray.

It’s about pausing before you eat to thank God for providing you food.

It’s about asking God to guide your reaction before you snap at your spouse or kids or roommate after a long day.

Cultivate the habit of prayer.

That ties in well to the next idea:

C. Develop an admiration of creation.

The clearest way God has revealed himself is through the Bible.

However, he has also made an incredibly beautiful, astonishing world that shows his handiwork.

Take time to look at the leaves and remember that as the colors and seasons change, the God who made and controls them is always the same.

Look at the stars and remember that God calls them all by name and yet calls you his own as well.

Get a bird feeder and marvel at the diversity you see and reflect on the great God who could create all of this and knows every single sparrow on earth.

Uses the world around us to prompt you to praise and thank the God who made and sustains it all.

D. Capitalize on transition moments.

Our days are filled with “in-betweens”.

You are waiting for that load of laundry to finish in the dryer or that file to download.

You are in-between meetings and have a minute to breathe.

Your professor is running a couple minutes late to class, or your friend hasn’t shown up at the coffee shop yet.

Instead of defaulting to jumping on your phone and your social network of choice, why not take a minute and look up at the world God made or pray about something going on or reflect on what you have been reading.

Read a verse or work on memorizing a passage of Scripture, all with the desire to reflect on God and ourselves with hearts ready to obey.

We have spent a little extra time on the “alone” part because this applies to us all.

Not only that, but some of these ideas carry through into the other areas we will look at.

When we are worshiping well when we are by ourselves, we will also...

2) Worship at work.

I recognize that not everyone in here has a job.

Some of you are retired, some of you work in your home keeping things running, and others may not be able to work due to disability.

Let’s expand the definition of work to include anything we do, whether for money, grades, or just because we need to take care of the things God has entrusted to us.

How worship at work looks may differ depending on your environment, but it is possible.

One way we work is that we:

A. Do good work.

One mistake we make is thinking that work is inherently bad.

It is true that since sin entered the world at what we call the Fall, work is hard and often futile.

However, remember that God gave Adam a job to do before sin entered the picture.

He told him to tend the garden.

Whatever we are called to do, we can make it worship by doing it well.

Look at the instructions Paul gives enslaved people in Ephesians 6:6-8

Worshiping at work means we will do our work well.

Christians should have the best attitudes and be the best students, workers, and bosses of anyone else.

Why?

Because I am working for Jesus at my job, not for this company or even for myself.

I do good work by reflecting on the fact that God does all things well.

He creates, he sustains, he made a world that he declared “very good.”

We are called to reflect those characteristics as we do good work that benefits others and honors God.

That means I can clean my house to the glory of God, write that paper as an act of worship, and lead the meeting in a way the reflects the character of God.

Beyond that, I can also worship by...

B. Talk to God about coworkers.

The habit of prayer we mentioned earlier plays out at work as we pray for our bosses and coworkers.

I should be taking time to talk to God about the needs I see in the life of those around me.

We have seen that recently as some of our members have shared prayer requests for their co-workers on Wednesday nights in prayer meeting.

They know God is a God who answers prayers and is concerned about people, so they take the time to talk to God about their co-workers.

That then naturally flows into the next act of worship, which is to...

C. Talk to coworkers about God.

We already mentioned capitalizing on those transition moments for personal worship, and here is how that can spill out at work.

If you have been worshiping throughout your day, that should naturally come out when you talk.

I am not necessarily talking about a full-on gospel presentation, although there may be times where you do that.

I am talking about when your friend is upset by something they saw in the news and they wonder how you stay so calm when the world is going crazy.