Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

BLUE FIST - “HOW TO FIT IN”

Well, there are a few things you should not do in worship in case you’re wondering.

My favorite there was the fact checking the pastor’s sermon.

While I haven’t had that happen, I did have trouble remembering something one time, and someone came up to me after the service and gave me the right info between the services.

They went online on their blackberry.

True story!

If those are the things you should not do in church, the question may be, what should you do in church.

Now the obvious answer is worship, right?

I mean we’re supposed to go to church to worship God.

Great answer, and its right, but what does it really mean?

Does it mean a certain style of music?

Does it mean a particular kind of preaching?

Does it even involve preaching and singing at all?

What does it really mean to worship God?

And furthermore why should you even care?

You might say, “I’m here, aren’t I pastor.

That’s all you should care about.

I’m here to endure, I mean listen to another message so let’s get on with it.

Time’s a-wasting and Western Sizzling’s a-waitin!

NEED

Well, in spite of what you might think, worship really matters.

You might be here today and you’ve got this vague sense of emptiness.

You may have a good job and a great family.

You ought to be happy and fulfilled, but the truth is, there is a turmoil in your life.

From the outside looking in, others might think you’re living a dream, but if they felt in here what you feel, they wouldn’t be so envious.

You’re empty and you can’t figure out why.

Would you just entertain the notion this morning that what you’re missing might just be a real experience of worship.

Warren Wiersbe, in his book Real Worship, wrote that there is nothing wrong with the church today that a real experience of worship could not fix.

So, just in case he’s right would you listen this morning?

I want to describe for you real, fulfilling, life-changing worship.

Others of us are carrying around a load of guilt.

It’s not false guilt, either.

There’s some things that you have done that you wouldn’t even admit to in this crowd today.

You’re here, but you wouldn’t be if we knew all that you were mixed up in.

You’d be too embarrassed.

But something drew you to this place today.

You were hoping against hope that this terrible burden of guilt you are carrying could be relieved.

You know, that’s what real worship does.

It leads you to a place of forgiveness where burdens are lifted.

Others aren’t so guilty as you are apathetic.

You used to have this dynamic, powerful relationship with Christ, but now everything has turned from the vibrant color of a real relationship to the dull brown of boredom.

You need inspiration.

That’s what real worship does.

It inspires your heart and activates your apathy.

BACKGROUND

Which leads us to our text for today.

Peter pictures worship for us in the second chapter of his first letter.

He writes in 2:4-8:

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

The key phrase to which this passage points is found in verse 5 where we are told that we, “as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, (watch!)

To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Our purpose, says Peter, is to “offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.”

In this he sounds like the Apostle Paul over in Romans 12. Through the first 11 chapters of Romans Paul explains that we are saved by grace through faith and not through our works.

He ends this explanation of the great grace of God in Chapter 11 by saying:

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has become His counselor?”

Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.

Amen.

And then, after this explanation of all that God has done for us, he goes on to explain what the proper response of people who have been so graciously saved is.

He says:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The NIV says that we should offer our bodies as sacrifices which is our spiritual worship.

Our point as believers is worship.

Now if that is true, the question then becomes how?

How can we truly worship God.

Well, I believe Peter answers that question by giving us the answer to three other questions of worship.

There are, in fact, three questions you must answer if you want to be a true worshiper.

The first is this:

DIV 1 WHOM SHOULD I WORSHIP?

EXP

That used to be a “slam-dunk” kind of question.

The obvious answer was “Jesus.”

Not so much anymore.

Our pluralistic world chooses to equate all religious figures, regardless of their worthiness.

So Jesus is no better than Mohammed or Bhudda or any other person or object you deem worthy of worship.

In that kind of an environment, the question, “Whom should I worship?” poses real problems for people.

So what’s the answer?

And, if you say, “Jesus,” what makes that statement valid.

Why is He, and He alone, worthy of our worship?

Well, Peter describes this Jesus with a couple of picturesque titles.

He calls Him a “living stone.”

He says, in v 4: Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. . .

He is the “living stone.”

Now what we must realize is that the image of a stone was used in the OT as a symbol for the Messiah who was to come.

Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22 in referring to himself when he said in Matthew 21:42

“Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.

This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’ ?

“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

It is interesting that Peter doesn’t just refer to him as a stone, however.

He calls Him a “living” stone.

I believe that this speaks to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah who brings life.

He alone died for our sin, but He did not stay dead.

He rose from the grave and lives to make intercession for us.

He is the living stone and because He died and rose, because by His death He redeemed us and by His life He sustains us, He is worthy of worship.