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The River ChurchSermons

Heart of Worship

Gary Wright · Sunday, 9 August 2026 · 36:53 · 4,592 words

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The message centers on Psalm 150, the final psalm that commands us to praise the Lord. It explains that praise flows from a heart surrendered to God, which is true worship, and that worship means bowing down and giving Him full control, not letting hobbies or other things become our focus. The speaker calls listeners to examine what they worship and to praise God in good times and bad, with words, actions, and singing. Ultimately, the sermon urges us to let everything we do reflect praise to God alone.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

praise 145 worship 38 uh 20 surrender 12 hobby 7 conform 13 lord 57 silas 5 psalm 22 sing 13 intertwined 3 everywhere 7

Topics

Faith 3 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Salvation 1 Israel 1 Sin 1 Mission & Evangelism 1 The Gospel 1 Righteousness 1 Hope 1

Scripture referenced 28

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 150 0:04 Psalms 150 0:17 Psalms 150 0:25 Psalms 150 1:06 Psalms 150 2:02 Psalms 146 3:40 John 4:23 6:53 Romans 12:1-2 8:24 Romans 12:1 8:55 Romans 12:2 8:55 Proverbs 31:28 12:03 Luke 2 17:53 Psalms 150 18:57 Psalms 50:2 18:57 Psalms 50:1 18:57 Psalms 50:2 19:05 Luke 17 21:37 Romans 5 24:57 Romans 10 25:33 Psalms 34 26:48 Ephesians 5 28:38 Hebrews 13 29:01 1 Thessalonians 1:2 29:18 Romans 8 29:55 Psalms 149:1 31:34 Psalms 35 31:50 Colossians 3 32:10 Psalms 86 33:06

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

if you have your bibles this morning we're in the last chapter in the psalms this morning

we're in psalm 150 i encourage you to open your bibles up i mean the the scripture will be on

the screen but there's something special about reading out of god's word if you have your app

or anything like that feel free to open that up psalm 150 but let me pray and then we will jump

into Psalm 150. Father, we praise you. We thank you for who you are and what you've done. We praise

you more than anything for your love for us, your love so much that you sent your son to take our

place and to pay our debt of sin. And Lord, I ask if there's anyone here that don't know you,

that today might be their day of salvation. Speak to our hearts this morning. Help us to really

grasp the idea of the subject this morning. We love you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

So Psalm 150 is the conclusion of the whole book, the whole book of Psalm, and it is a fitting

conclusion. It really is. One pastor says this, after all the prayers, after all the laments that

we heard about in Psalm, after the confession, the cries for help, the songs of trust, and the

declaration of hope,

the final word is not sorrow. It is not lament, or I'm sorry, not confession. The final word is not

fear. The final word is praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And honestly, when you read the Psalm,

that's the conclusion everywhere. We serve a God that we can trust and a God that's worthy

of our praise. And I hope you understand that and

Realize that. This morning, as we start off, I would like to read Psalm 150. And so if you would

follow along, it says this. It starts off this way. Praise the Lord. Praise him in his mighty

heavens. I'm sorry. Let me start over. I already messed up. Praise the Lord. Praise God in his

sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him for his

grace. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with trumpet sound. Praise him with

lute and harp. Praise him with tambourine and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with

sounding cymbal. Praise him with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath. Praise

the Lord. Praise the Lord. And if you're not sure what this message is about, it's about praise,

right? 13 times the word praise is used in these six verses. 13 times we're commanded to praise

the Lord. I love, I love this verse or this,

chapter. But also, if that isn't enough to let you know that we should be praising the Lord,

Psalm 146 through 149 also begins and ends with the command to praise the Lord. Okay? Many times

we associate praising the Lord with worship, which that is correct. Praise is part of worship.

But the two words actually have two different meanings. The word worship means this, to fall

down or bow down before, right? To bow down before. And the word worship is intertwined with this,

surrender, surrender. We are to surrender and worship to God alone. And I know in my life,

this is hard to say, but it's true, that I have,

worshiped other things besides the Lord. I had a Harley once. I worshiped that pretty much,

right? And I've had hobbies in my life. And I'm not bashing hobbies. And I'm not bashing Harleys.

But when we let those things become our worship, that's when it becomes a problem. Like in a hobby,

for instance, and I said golf, but any hobby, right? I'm not a golfer and I'm not picking on

golf because I know Mike Wing loves golf. And I know probably some of you others,

do too. But when we take our hobby and we make that what we're worshiping, and what I mean by

that, when we have a hobby and it's what we talk about, or it's what we think about, and it's the

only thing we do in our spare time, and it's what we invest in, guess what it is? It is our worship.

It is our worship. It is, and I've had hobbies like that, where I couldn't imagine my life

without it. But guess what? I'm so thankful that God broke me out of that cycle and realized

that he is my life. And I'm so thankful that God broke me out of that cycle and realized

that he is my life. And I'm so thankful that God broke me out of that cycle and realized

that he is my life. And I'm so thankful that God broke me out of that cycle and realized

that he's the only one I can truly worship. When we truly worship God, we must surrender

everything to him. He needs to be our focus of surrender. There are other things we can do in

life like golf and ride Harleys, but God is the focus of our worship, or he wants to be the focus

of our worship. So is God what you're worshiping in your life? Worship, a lot of times we look at it

as an activity that we do on Sunday morning, but worship is way more than that. It is a lifestyle.

It is a lifestyle. In John chapter 4 verse 23, Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman at the well,

and they're having the discussion about where the Samaritans worship and where the

Israelites worship. And Jesus says something incredible to her. He says, but the hour is coming,

and it is now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, in spirit

and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. So what is he talking about in

spirit and in truth? When he's talking about spirit, he's talking about a heart surrendered

to him, to the Lord.

Remember what it means? It means to bow before. It's a lifestyle where we serve the Lord. That

is what he's talking about, to serve in spirit. But he also says to serve in the truth.

What is the truth? There's only one true truth in this world, and it's in this book right here

that God gave us. This is his revelation to us. This is the truth. This is what he's talking about.

should align with God's word. Paul writes about this also in Romans 12, 1 and 2. Paul writes,

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a

living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is what? Your spiritual worship. It's our

spiritual worship. So let me talk about verse 1 first, and then we'll hit verse 2. So Paul's saying,

look, because you have faith in Jesus Christ, because you have faith in, have trusted him as

Savior, you've experienced his mercy, and you are to be a living sacrifice to him. You're to put him,

that he's who you should worship. He's who you should bow the knee to. We are to live our life

according to what he wants, and not what we want. Living sacrifice, okay? And you may be sitting here,

you're thinking, how do I do that? How do I surrender my life? We learn truth. Paul tells us

in the second verse, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your

mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and

perfect. He's saying, Paul's saying, look, don't be conformed to Harley Davidson's. Don't be conformed

to the will of God. Don't be conformed to the will of God. Don't be conformed to the will of God.

Don't be conformed to the will of God. Don't be conformed to the will of God. Don't be conformed to

the will of God. Don't be conformed to the will of God. Don't be conformed to the will of God. Don't be conformed to

golf or these other things. Don't be conformed to sin. Don't be conformed to what the world says is

right. Look at my word and be transformed by my word. And when we allow God's word to come

into our mind, the Holy Spirit will use us to use it to transform us into who God wants us to be,

a living sacrifice. But it takes surrender and commitment on our part.

That is worship. I said all that just to get the praise. Sorry. I really want you to understand

that there's a difference. A worship is a heart surrendered to God, and praise comes from that

surrendered heart. Praise is audibly saying, it's more, you know, worship is internal,

praise is external. When we come here on Sunday, we sing praises to who?

God, because of our worship, because of a surrendered heart. Worship is intertwined

with submission. Praise is intertwined with thanksgiving. It means adoration. And unlike

worship, worship, we can only worship one, and his name is Jesus Christ, right? When we praise,

we can praise other things in life. Like I praise my wife, and I praise my kids when they do something

they deserve that. Because my wife is amazing, and she deserves that. And I hope you feel the same

about your wife. Actually, in Proverbs 31, 28, and 29, it says this, her, talking about a mom,

children, raise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her. Same exact word

that we're talking about in the psalm.

He praises her. Why? Because many women have done excellently, but you surpassed them all.

He's praising her for being this godly woman that she is. And there's nothing wrong with that. But

in our passage today, we're talking about praising the Lord. We're talking about praising,

we're going to be talking about praising him for who he is and what he's done. The, the,

the word, uh, that are the phrase that our verse starts out with is praise the Lord. And in the

original language, it, it, it, it's a word that's, uh, that we translate hallelujah. Okay. It is

Hallel. That means praise. And Yah is short for Yahweh. Praise Yahweh. Hallelujah. Right? Let's

uh psalm uh 100 verse 4 is an awesome passage and actually we sing a song with these very words in

it it says enter the gates with thanksgiving or enter his gates with thanksgiving enter his courts

with praise give thanks to him bless his name i love the song we sing it says enter the gates

with the lord of the lord with thanksgiving enter the courts of the lord with praise

that's what we're talking about sorry about my singing i'm horrible at it right

praise comes from a heart surrendered to god the psalm in our in our passage today it goes on in

the next verse and it tells us where we are to praise psalm with 150 verse 2 says praise the

praise god in his sanctuary praise him in his mighty heaven like in the early church they

worshiped in the temple and they and there was times where they have a tent where they worshiped

in the tabernacle and that's what uh the psalmist is talking about when he says sanctuary they sang

praises to the lord in the sanctuary and that's what we do on sunday mornings we come here

and who are we praising what is

praise for it should be this who is praised for it is not for us it is for the lord we come here to

praise him and and that's uh what we come here on sunday mornings is all about praising the lord

but he also says praise him in his mighty heavens you know there's angels in heaven that all they

do is praise the lord holy holy holy is the lord god almighty when we think about the lord god almighty

is the lord god almighty when we think about this though are we to only praise the lord here

absolutely not and when we we look at this and it says the tabernacle and the heavens that means

we're to praise him everywhere we praise him everywhere there's a couple of guys uh paul and

silas they were on a missionary trip paul was uh starting churches in asia minor all around right

and you would think oh well nothing bad's gonna happen but sometimes bad things happen but god's

in control of those bad things right he's in control and paul and silas knew that and it says

this in act 1625 they were in prison they got arrested for ministry they got arrested and it

says this in act 1625 about midnight paul and silas were praying and singing hymns

god they were praising god in jail and the prisoners there were listening to them that's

amazing what do we want to do when hardships come our way we want to give up and say god where are

you not paul and silas they were praising god we praised him everywhere um in second samuel

the israelites or david brought the the ark of the covenant to israel and it

records that uh israel praised god it says david was dancing he they were they were thrilled they

were praising god in luke 2 the shepherds went and met jesus in the in the uh the manger and when

they came back what did they do they praised the lord and what else happened here when uh in exodus

when god delivered the israelites across the the red sea and they were praising god and they were

they praised the lord there's a whole section where they sang praises to god we are to praise

the lord and we are to do that everywhere look when we share what the lord has done in our lives

and we share the good news of jesus we are praising god we are why do we praise him

psalm 150 i said psalm 50 verse 2 before but that was actually verse 1 this

psalm 50 verse 2 it says praise him for his mighty deeds praise him according to his excellent

goodness we praise god because of what he's done and we praise him for his goodness we so so let's

talk about god's mighty deeds there's some big ones god created the heavens and the earth he

created us he even though we fell he sent his son jesus he he created us in his image as

well and look we we have god's we talked about this a few weeks ago or in psalm i believe it's

136 or 139 we talked about the attributes of god but god's attributes are his we can praise him for

those deeds as well for his love for us for his holiness for his justice and that he's everywhere

he knows everything and he's all powerful we praise god for that i don't want a god

that aren't don't do those things it isn't that okay but we also praise him for his goodness

and this is where believe start to take things for granted we really do everything everything

in our life is a gift from god praise the lord our children and our grandchildren are a gift

from god sometimes i don't feel that way they are a gift from god praise the lord

i woke up this morning praise the lord we can freely gather together together in praise

praise the lord every breath we take is a gift god praise the lord we take these things for

granted we think we're owed these things but that's not the truth and uh there's a great story

in the bible in luke 17 there's 10 men who are struggling with leprosy

and they cry out to jesus they see him heal us heal us and jesus says hey go priest the priest

had to be the one the priest in the temple had to be the one that gave them the okay to go back

into society he says go show yourself to the priest so the 10 of them start they're all excited

they start heading to the to the priest and on the way one of them realizes that he's healed

and he turns around one turns around

and he comes and he bows the knee thank you praise you and jesus says something i think jesus

had an incredible sense of humor he says where are the 10 where are the nine like he's like you're

here but where are the other nine right that's what he said to him but listen this is these men

were healed and only one returned look we cry out to god for him to do things in our lives

we cry out there's been people um who's had surgery recently there's been people who are

struggling and when we're going through those things where do we turn we turn to god but listen

when god comes through and when he answers our prayer and even if he don't sometimes we forget

to praise him afterwards look god wants us to be like the one who came back to remember his

greatness and what he's done to remember who he is that's where i'm going to be in the future

praise comes from it comes from remembering and knowing and that's what we're singing about here

this morning look but the most important thing i really want to hit on this before we move on

the most powerful thing and the most loving thing that god has done for us is he sent his son to die

and take our the place of uh on the cross and pay the price for our sin we've all sinned against him

we've all rebelled

and in the midst of that it actually says in the bible that we've all sinned and fall short of the

glory of god there is none righteous listen to this word none right there's none of us that are

righteous none of us have skated through without sinning and there's a price for the sin it is

separation from god the wages of sin is death is how the scripture words it it's separation

from our god we don't have a relationship with him

without jesus but god loved us so much that he sent his son actually the what the verse that says

the wages of sin is death says but the free gift of god is eternal life through christ jesus it

starts off with bad news and it ends with great news in romans 5 8 it says god shows his love for

us that while we were still sinners christ died for us he loved us so much that he sent his son

to take our place

he loved us so much he sent his son think of that and what do we do that's the gospel of christ or

that's the gospel of jesus christ how do we respond to the gospel what is our part in it

our part is this faith romans 10 9 says if you confess with your mouth that jesus is lord and

believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved if we believe that jesus

death on the cross will save us from the death of jesus and we will be saved from the death of jesus

that he did that in our place and that he didn't stay dead that he rose from the grave if we believe

those things and we confess that the lord is our uh we we make jesus the lord of our life that that

is to realize that we're sinners and he's our only hope and we're going to do our best to follow him

when we do those things we will be saved that is our responsibility faith in jesus the only thing

that can save us is our faith in jesus and that's the only thing that can save us is our faith in

or reconnect us to god it's faith in jesus it is in christ alone so when should we or uh why should

we praise him for who he is and what he's done and when should we praise him i added this one

because i really think this is important when should we praise him and so in psalm 34 1 it says

i will bless the lord at all times his praise shall continually

be on my mouth a couple of weeks ago or actually it's probably been a couple months ago now my time

goes by fast but it was there's a young couple that comes here and they wanted to be married

and they couldn't they just needed some help in that and kim and i brought them in we we met with

them we talked with them and we were able to they got married right here on the stage with

a few other family members it was the most incredible

day it was the most incredible day because this is why they were so thankful they were so thankful

i'll bet you 20 times they thank them or their family thanked kim and i for doing that when

should we praise our lord all time time we say this i like to say that god is good and all the

time we believe that if we do should be praising him what all the time because he's always good

ephesians are this praise should be ongoing all the time but ephesians 5 20 uh is a verse that

also says this it says giving thanks always and for everything to god the father in the name of

the lord jesus christ hebrews 13 15 says this through him let us there's

our new series let us continually offer up sacrifice and praise to god that is the fruit

of our lips that acknowledge his name and first thessalonians 1 verse 2 it says give we give

thanks to god always uh of you let me read again we give thanks to god always for all of you

consistently mentioning you in our prayers part of our prayer life is

thanksgiving to god we praise him all the time and believers can praise god even in their difficult

circumstances romans 8 28 says and we know that all things work we know that for those who love

god all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose when we're

believers even when our world seems to be journey burning down

god is using it for good he is and we can we can have we can believe that that's what paul and

silas believed in jail they believed they were there for a purpose they knew god had a plan and

guess what the jailer got saved because they were there singing praises and honestly that jailer

became a big big part of the church later on but we praise god all the time in good times and bad

because he's always good and how do we praise the lord

the psalmist writes uh three verses about this he tells us we praise him with trumpet sound we

praise him with lute and harp we praise him with tambourine and dance praise him with strings and

pipe praise him with sounding cymbals praise him with loud clashing cymbals the psalmist shares that

we praise god with all these instruments with everything we have we praise the lord

but there's more ways i know john uh

mentioned it i don't know if it was in his prayer or when he was speaking that we praise god in

other ways besides singing um in psalm 149 verse 1 it says praise the lord sing to the lord a new

song his praise in the assembly of the godly we praise him with singing we praise him with our

words psalm 35 28 then my tongue shall tell of his righteousness and of your praise all day long

when we speak we should be speaking praise about god people should be able to see our praise in our

actions in colossians 3 17 it says and whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name

of the lord jesus christ in the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him does our life

reflect the praise or do we get upset with somebody and we complain about oh i this person

did this and we try to get people on our side or do we praise god in the hardship do we do we praise

him when our world's falling down and can people see that we believe that god's in control even

when things are going horribly wrong can they see the joy and the hope in your life actions should

reflect our praise and we're to praise him with our whole heart psalm 86 12 i give thanks to you

oh lord my god with my whole heart and i glorify your name forever those are some hard things and

some convicting things to listen to because i feel like we all struggle in some of these areas

and if we're truthful we know that but i love how some this this chapter ends

and this is also one of our songs i'm not singing this one my voice is shot but it says let everything

that has uh has breath praise the lord praise the lord let's just say that together let everything

that has breath praise the lord praise the lord look everyone every believer i'm going to say

everything that has breath is commanded praise the lord but as believers i think our praise

should come from a heart of worship it should we should want to praise the lord every breath

that we have is a gift from god and an opportunity to praise him even though our praising is

continual and everywhere we as believers gather together and praise him corporately that's the

reason we gather we come here and we sing praises of who god is and what he has done

we talk about him and we share the good news through talking in other ways it's all about

the lord that is our purpose for gathering praising is not like the singing part is not

praising god is not for us it helps us to remember who god is but our praise is to god

many times they'll critique praise on sunday mornings i've had people tell me that there's

people around them criticizing their voice honestly people probably been criticizing my

voice too but but listen when we criticize let me let me just say this praise is not for you

praise is for our god and our creator praise is for his son jesus christ really have the right

to critique because it's all about him and it comes from a heart of worship

Listen to this message