Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Please open with me to Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-9.

Today we conclude our series on “Tools of the Trade” by taking a look at the discipline of Worship.

Today will not necessarily be a technical discussion of how to worship as much as it is both, a reminder of why, and a call to worship.

We will see that we are to truly worship God by loving Him with our whole heart.

Jesus told the woman at the well that we must worship God in Spirit and in Truth, so our worship is obviously important to God.

Let’s look to Deuteronomy to find our biblical basis for worshipping as we discuss the call to worship as individuals, families, and the church together today.

** CHANGE SLIDE **

Worship is drawing near to God as you ascribe total worth to Him and Him alone.

A very loose outline of Deuteronomy has been stated this way:

Chapters 1-4: Give an overview of Israel’s history with God, and instructs the reader on how to enter into a relationship with God.

Chapters 5-11: Give instructions on how to live as God’s people.

Chapters 12-26: Give specific instructions on the nature of new life in the covenant relationship with God.

Chapters 27-34: Give details and instructions to help Israel live faithfully in the land they are about to enter.

From:

Invited to Know God: The Book of Deuteronomy (1.

A Lens for Reading)

The idea here … focuses not so much on the number of the loved one but on the singular and exclusive love shown by the lover.

In other words, the call to love Yahweh as one is the call to adore him as a groom does his bride.

It is a radical and all-consuming adoration.

The enemies of such devotion are apathy and apostasy—that is, lukewarmness and infidelity.

Both feature in the Bible, though infidelity, or idolatry, is the one that gets the most attention.

A. J. Culp, Invited to Know God: The Book of Deuteronomy, ed.

Craig G. Bartholomew and David J. H. Beldman, Transformative Word (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 34–35.

We order worship in a very specific way and it’s by design, not random.

There is a purpose to it all.

Just as there is a logical flow within the Ten Commandments, there is a flow within the service designed to help us move closer to God as we move through the service.

Referring to a logic of the ten commandments, one commentary shares this insight:

Invited to Know God: The Book of Deuteronomy (Worship as Prioritizing)

[The Commandments] move from worship (1–4) to ethics (5–9) to desire (10).

In other words, worship is the fountainhead of ethics and desire, and we must get it right if we hope to get the others right.

To say it differently, we cannot hope to have good behavior or virtuous desires if we worship the wrong thing.

In this sense, the Ten Commandments stand as a hierarchy of values or a hierarchy of desire.

The point I want to make here is that as you come to know God more deeply the more you will come to love Him.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is in Mark 12:29-31 “29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no other commandment greater than these.””

By quoting the opening to the Shema, Jesus made it very clear that the two tables of the law - those first four that deal with our vertical relationship with God, and those last six that deal with our horizontal relationships with others - are of vital importance.

As we love God and love others, we become more like Him, growing in our walk, shining our light, and obediently bringing glory to God.

A very simple definition of worship is to draw near to God as you ascribe total worth to Him and Him alone.

For a much more technical definition, I simply refer you to many of Pastor Kaleb’s sermons on worship.

You will draw closer to one another as you draw closer to God.

As we lead you in worship corporately, you ought to lead your family at home, and find ways to worship individually.

Let’s look first at the call to worship individually.

** CHANGE SLIDE **

We are to worship individually.

It’s not simply a coincidence that the sermon on Worship comes after all the other disciplines we’ve discussed.

In fact, each of the disciplines we studied are, in and of themselves, expressions of worship.

Bible reading, prayer, serving, evangelism, and giving are all ways in which we draw closer to God through obedience and dedication to His commands.That is why we talk about this, the sermon portion of the service as an aspect of our weekly corporate worship.

When I thank Pastor Kaleb, Naomi, and the others who help to lead us in worship, I’m not saying that the time of worship has ended, but rather that their portion of leadership has brought us to another section of dedicated worship each week.

Of course, after the message is given, they come back to lead us in lyrical worship as we sing a song of response and close with a chorus sending us out into the next week of life ready to take on the challenges and blessings waiting for us in the days ahead.

Everything that is done in this room each week is planned to help us truly worship as we draw near to our saviour, growing in our love for Him, His plans, and His people.

Now, with all that being said, I do want to touch on Bible reading, as an act of worship again.

We understand that we cannot know God fully, because of our limited minds, but we can know Him truly by reading and studying His word.

He gave us the Scriptures as divine revelation so that we could love and follow Him.

If we truly love Him, we ought to read what He sent us.

When Rachel and I first started dating, we already knew we were going to get married.

In fact, we started dating on May 23, 2005 when I looked at her as we were walking together, and said, since we’re going to get married, we should probably start dating.

And it worked!

Well, that was in May, and by the first or second week of June we began our three month summer ministries, I in New York, and Rachel in Florida.

Now one of Rachel’s love languages is receiving gifts.

She’s so thoughtful in the way she figures out the perfect gift to give someone.

Some of you have received just the perfect gift from Rachel at the perfect time and you know what I’m talking about.

I say all of that, because just before she left, Rachel presented me with a special gift.

It was a box that she filled with wrote various notes and quotes to encourage me with throughout the three months we were to be apart.

Along with it, she gave me letters that were dated for the various weeks of ministry, because she knew the summer schedule and thought about what she could encourage me with.

At the end of the summer, she gave me a notebook she had been working on since we last saw each other.

100 days of notes from her! I can’t tell you how much that box and the notes with it meant to me while we were apart.

I would read over them when I had free time, I would study her handwriting, I would read and re-read each of the pages because this was before we had cellphones so we couldn’t just text throughout the day, we could only talk at night, if our schedules lined up right.

When I think of how much time I spent with that box, and the notebook that followed, thinking about Rachel, getting to know her and preparing for a life together, I’m reminded that reading and studying God’s word is one major way for us to draw near to God as we grow in relationship with Him.

We should find ways to get alone with His Word, reading over it, contemplating the meanings of each word written so that we could know and Love Him.

When we worship individually, we ought to put a high premium on the word of God as we read, meditate, memorize, and then share it with others.

As we worship individually, we also need to be spending time in prayer, dedicated to serving, obediently sharing our faith, and sacrificially giving.

All of which helps to draw us closer to God in our daily walk.

Before we move on, I know some are probably wondering, what amazing gift did I give Rachel… After receiving the awesome box filled with notes, letters, and memories, I handed her my high school class ring on a string.

I’m not really sure what she saw in me.

Thankfully she stuck around and together we have a family.

Which brings us to the next point.

We are to be worshipping with our families.

** CHANGE SLIDE **

We are to worship with our families.

We have talked about this before, and so I won’t belabor the point, if that’s even possible in our day and age.

Donald Whitney writes,

“Having your family in a Christ-exalting, gospel-centered, Bible-teaching local church is crucial to Christian parenting.

But it is not enough for conveying to your family all you want to teach them about God and your beliefs.

Moreover, it is unlikely that exposure to the church once or twice a week will impress your children enough with the greatness and glory of God that they will want to pursue Him once they leave the home.

This is why family worship is so important.

But even more importantly, God deserves to be worshipped in our homes by our families.

(Whitney, Donald S. Family Worship, 14.)

Now, when you hear the word “Family,” please do not think that this only applies to those with children at home.

The call to worship at home is there for singles, engaged couples preparing for marriage, Newlyweds, those without children yet, those with children, empty nesters, and those in their golden years.

As a reminder of what we read earlier, Deuteronomy 6:6 tells us “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”

What words are to be on our hearts?

Look again to Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

** CHANGE SLIDE **

Lest we begin to forget this important command, Moses instructed the Israelites to love the Lord their God with their total heart, and the way for them to do this is through educating the next generation.

When we read verses 6-9, it’s hard to think of a time when we aren’t supposed to be teaching the commands of God to our children.

We are to teach them to love God when we are sitting and walking, laying down and rising up.

The commands are to be ever visible, like signs on our hands, or frontlets (which were small ornaments worn on the forehead).