Worship
Power of the Cross
Oh, to see the dawn of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.Oh, to see the pain written on your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought, Ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.Now the daylight flees; Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two, Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.Oh, to see my name written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through your selfless love.FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.
The Glory of the Cross
How Deep
You were broken that I might be healed
You were cast off that I might draw near
You were thirsty that I might come drink
Cried out in anguish that I might singHow deep is Your love
How high and how wide is Your mercy
How deep is Your grace
Our hearts overflow with praise
To YouYou knew darkness that I might know light
Wept great tears that mine might be dried
Stripped of glory that I might be clothed
Crushed by Your Father to call me Your own© 2006 Sovereign Grace Music (BMI).
From Valley of Vision
Worship and/or Counseling pt. 2
Several years ago an article in Journal of Biblical Counseling opened my eyes to see that counseling is a Ministry of the Word. True Christian Counseling often involves helping people discern their bestting sin, personal idols, and functional unbelief, and then helping them apply the gospel to their lives. This is what the Ministry of the Word does, whether it comes in the form of preaching, teaching, or counseling. With that understanding, then, it should be no surprise that Worship can also carry a function of Counseling.
In this video David Powlison of CCEF and Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Ministries continue their discussion about how worship can effect personal transformation in the participant and the worship leaders’ responsibilty to lead people to fully enter into worship in a way that opens the participant to experience what God will do in them.
[This is Part 2 of 2]
Worship and/or Counseling
What effect can worship have on the worshipper? In this video Worship Leader Bob Kauflin and counseler David Powlison discuss the therapeutic aspect of worship.
While this video comes from the perspective of the worship leader, and the awesome opportunity and responsibility the worship leader has, I think this discussion will provide everyone an enhanced perspective about the dynamic that entering into genuine worship offers.
[NOTE: This is the First of Two Parts of this discussion]
Averting Worship Wars
There are many fights in churches these days over what kind of music to use, but I am convinced most of those fights could be avoided if we faithfully reflected upon the questions given to us by [Colossians 3.12-17]. Instead of asking what kind of music will appeal to the world around us, we must ask:
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What will enable us most deeply to dwell in God’s Word?
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What will best express the Word?
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How will the Word’s beauty and mystery, its infinity and generosity be best conveyed?
Lord Dissolve My Frozen Heart
Lord, dissolve my frozen heart/ By the beams of Love Divine;/ This alone can warmth impart/ To dissolve a heart like mine.
O that love, how vast it is!/ Vast, it seems, though known in part;/ Strange indeed, if love like this/ Should not melt the frozen heart.
Chorus: The love of Christ passes knowledge./ The Love of Christ eases fear./ The love of Christ hits a man’s heart;/ It pierces him like a spear.
Savior, let thy love be felt,/ Let it’s power be felt by me,/ Then my frozen heart shall melt,/ Melt in love, o Lord to thee.
Source: Red Mountain Music
10 Practical Preparations for Hearing the Word of God on Sunday Mornings
1. Pray that God would give you a good and honest heart.
The heart we need is a work of God. That’s why we pray for it. Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart.” Jeremiah 24:7, “I will give them a heart to know Me.” Let’s pray, “O Lord, give me a heart for you. Give me a good and honest heart. Give me a soft and receptive heart. Give me a humble and meek heart. Give me an fruitful heart.”
2. Meditate on the Word of God.
Psalm 34:8, “O taste and see that the LORD is good.” On Saturday night read some delicious portion of your Bible with a view to stirring up hunger for God. This is the appetizer for Sunday morning’s meal.
3. Purify your mind by turning away from worldly entertainment.
James 12:1, “Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” It is astonishing how many Christians watch banal, empty, silly, trivial, titillating, suggestive, immodest TV shows. This makes us small, weak & worldly, and inauthentic in worship. Instead, turn off the television on Saturday night and read something true and great and beautiful and pure and honorable and excellent and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). Your heart will unshrivel and be able to feel greatness again.
4. Trust in the truth that you already have.
The hearing of the word of God that fails during trial has no root (Luke 8:13). What is the root we need? It is trust. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream.” Trusting in the truth you already have is the best way to prepare yourself to receive more.
5. Rest long enough Saturday night to be alert and hopeful Sunday morning.
1 Corinthians 6:12, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.” I am not laying down any law here. I am saying there are Saturday night ways that ruin Sunday morning worship. Don’t be enslaved by them. Without sufficient sleep, our minds are dull, our emotions are flat, our proneness to depression is higher, and our fuses are short. So decide when you must get up on Sunday in order to have time to eat, get dressed, pray and meditate on the Word, prepare the family, and travel to church; and then compute backward eight hours and be sure that you are in bed 15 minutes before that. Read your Bible in bed and fall asleep with the Word of God in your mind.
NOTE: Parents, teach teenagers that Saturday is NOT the night to stay out late with friends. If there is a special late night, make it Friday. It is a terrible thing to teach children that worship is so optional that it doesn’t matter if you are exhausted when you come.
6. Forebear one another Sunday morning without grumbling and criticism.
Psalm 106:25, “They grumbled in their tents; they did not listen to the voice of the LORD.” Sunday morning grumbling and controversy and quarreling can ruin a worship service for a family. When there is something you are angry about or some conflict that you genuinely think needs to be talked about, forebear. Of course if you are clearly the problem and need to apologize, do it as quickly as you can (Matthew 5:23-24). But if you are fuming because of children or spouse delinquency, forebear – that is, be slow to anger and quick to listen (James 1:19). In worship open yourself to God’s exposing the log in your own eye. It may be that all of you will be humbled and chastened so that no conflict is necessary.
7. Be meek and teachable when you come.
James 12:1 “In meekness receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” Meekness and teachability are not gullibility. You have your Bible and you have your brain. Use them. But if we come with a chip on our shoulder and a suspicion of the preaching week after week, we will not hear the Word of God. Meekness is a humble openness to God’s truth with a longing to be changed by it.
8. Be still as you enter the room and focus your mind’s attention and heart’s affection on God.
Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” As we enter the sanctuary, let us come on the lookout for God and leave on the lookout for people. Come with a quiet passion to seek God and his power. We will not be an unfriendly church if we are aggressive in our pursuit of God during the prelude and aggressive in our pursuit of visitors during the postlude.
9. Think earnestly about what is sung and prayed and preached.
1 Corinthians 14:20, “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature”. So Paul says to Timothy, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7). Anything worth hearing is worth thinking about. If you would take heed how you hear, think about what you hear.
10. Desire the Truth of God’s Word more than you desire riches or food.
1 Peter 2:2 “Like newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.” As you sit quietly and pray and meditate on the text and the songs, remind yourself of what Psalm 19:10-11 says about the Words of God “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
*Taken from John Piper’s Taste & See.
Making the Most of Worship
Worship is the most important activity that a believer participates in during any given week. My purpose is not so much to make that case in this post as it is to offer some suggestions about how we might get the most out of the worship experience.
In short, like anything else worth doing, it takes some preparations.
The following suggestions, taken from Reverend Joseph “Skip” Ryan, former pastor of Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, are some that I’ve found particularly helpful:
1. RECOGNIZE: Corporate worship grows out of personal worship. Therefore, the most fundamental preparation for Sunday worship is that which flows from presenting yourself as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1-2) and having a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:1-10).
DO: Ask God for a heart of worship and brokenness each day.
2. RECOGNIZE: You cannot expect to rush into church after an exhausting Saturday night and “be worshipful.” A late Saturday night may be necessary and fun, but if you always get less sleep than you need and are tired in church, can you be alert and attentive to the majesty and presence of the Lord?
DO: Get a good night’s sleep before Sunday worship.
3. RECOGNIZE: You must have a fertile heart Sunday morning.
DO: Spend time alone with the Lord Sunday morning before coming to church (Psalm 5:3).
4. RECOGNIZE: You cannot prepare adequately just before worship if you are late. If you are parking the car, you have missed the beginning of worship.
DO: Plan to be in your seat at least five minutes before the service starts.
5. RECOGNIZE: God is in our presence when we gather for worship; He constitutes us as a worshipping assembly (Hebrews 12:23).
DO: Come, conscious that God is present.
6. RECOGNIZE: There is a healthy balance between greeting friends and being quiet before the service starts.
DO: Be quiet before worship, pray or read a psalm, the prayer at the top of the program, the responsive reading or a creed.
7. RECOGNIZE: Worship centers around the Word read, preached, and heard, for the Word is God’s living voice speaking His will to us.
DO: Listen carefully to the Word read and preached; give the sermon full attention; pray to learn from it.
8. RECOGNIZE: Worship is much more than hearing a sermon. The first half of the service is not “window dressing” or a warm-up for a message.
DO: Concentrate on the meaning of each part of the worship as it occurs.
9. RECOGNIZE: Worship also centers around the Sacraments – ordinances instituted by Christ for the benefit of the believers.
DO: Participate in the Sacraments: Baptism – reaffirm and “improve upon” your own baptism. Communion – attend and expect Christ to minister to you.
10. RECOGNIZE: Worship should change us.
DO: During the minute of silence following the benediction, resolve to do one concrete thing on the basis of your worship (Romans 12:2).
Tips That Change the Taste of Worship
As a pastor I have come to understand that some people have difficulty concentrating throughout the Sunday message. Sometimes it’s just me people can’t follow. But sometimes it is them. It may be a short attentioon span, external distractions, or just the overwhelming wealth of insight being offered. (That last one is my favorite.)
If you’ve ever found yourself to be one that occasionally experiences this problem, let me offer a few practical tips. These are far from perfect, and certainly not exhaustive, but I think they are helpful:
1. Write It Down
Many educators will tell you to write things down because it helps you focus and remember. Often, after writing something down, you’ll find you don’t even need to go back to your notes to recall what you wrote.
I find it interesting that in Deuteronomy 17.18 we learn that every time a new king was installed in Israel he was to write the entire Law of God out by hand. He had to write it himself. He could not delegate it to anyone else. He could not dictate to his secretary. But taking pen in hand, the new king had to transcribe the whole thing himself. The expected result, we learn in v. 19, was that the new king would revere the Lord and follow the law carefully. I suspect that what is also true, but has no need to be stated, is that the king will remember the Law.
2. Pray It In
When you hear something that strikes you, if the Lord impresses something on you, during the course of the message, stop and pray right then. Whether it is something that challenges you, encourages you, or even convicts you, ask the Lord to apply it to your life right then. (This is also true during other parts of the service. You may be struck by somethng in a hymn, or during a prayer. Pray it in.)
A church service is supposede to be more relational than academic. The Lord promises his presence among his people. It should be a time of interaction between you and God. As he speaks to you, deal with it at that moment.
3. Give It Out
After you write it down and pray it in, don’t neglect to give it out. Tell someone about it. If you are married, share your insight with you spouse on the way home: “Honey, do you know what struck me today?”
When you give it out it becomes part of your life. Your insight may also prove benficial to the one you share it with. And giving it out also promotes unity, a oneness, because you are opening up and sharing what God is doing in your heart and life.
4. Move Around
No, I don’t mean you should get up in the middle of the message. I mean, don’t always sit in the same place.
While the first three are pretty simple, and probably will not receive much negative response, this suggestion poses some risks. It may not only seem strange, but the very notion violates some long standing personal traditions. I’m convinced that whole sanctuaries were built around some people – probably built while they were sitting in one particular spot! God have mercy on the visitor who sits in what he/she consider to be “MY” place.
But this suggestion is not as silly as it may at first seem.
Studies have shown a direct correlation between academic success levels and where a student sits in the classroom. (I usually sat in the back, which probably says a lot.) Perhpas it could also have some effect spiritually.
Now, I am not suggesting that those who sit up front are actually more spiritually mature than those in the back. Spirituality has nothing to do with geographic location. But there is an attitude that can creep in. Sitting in the same spot, week after week, year after year, things can become a little stale.
Moving around every once in a while offers a new, refreshing perspective. You see things from a different angle, which seems to stimulate the attention span. You are surrounded by different people, which not only creates a different worship environment, it is also a great way to expand unity within the church.
It’s amazing, but sitting in a different place almost makes it seem like a whole different church, regardless of the size of the sanctuary.
So move around, and mix it up.
Wheting Our Apetite for Worship
Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God – it whets our appetite… Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship – it deepens… It overfloows the hour and permeates the week…
– Eugene Petereson
The Supremacy of God in Missions Through Worship
by John Piper
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.
Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. “The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!” (Psalm 97.1). “Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Psalm 67.3-4).
But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. Missionaries will never call out, “Let the nations be glad!”, who cannot say from the heart, “I rejoice in the Lord…I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High” (Psalm 104.34; 9.2). Missions begins and ends in worship.
If the pursuit of God’s glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man’s good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come!
Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Psalm 96.3). Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claims upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.
Albert Einstein’s Indictment
For example, Charles Misner, a scientific specialist in general relativity theory, expressed Albert Einstein‘s skepticism over the church with words that should waken us to the shallowness of our experience with God in worship.
“The design of the universe…is very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preacher said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had every imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he’d run across did not have proper respect…for the author of the universe.”
The charge of blasphemy is loaded. The point is to pack a wallop behind the charge that in our worship services God simply doesn’t come through for who he is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribable magnitude of what God has made, not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical “how to’s” and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality–the God of overwhelming greatness.
It is possible to be distracted from God in trying to serve God. Martha-like , we neglect the one thing needful, and soon begin to present God as busy and fretful. A.W. Tozer warned us about this:
“We commonly represent God as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. … Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God.”
Scientists know that light travels at the speed of 5.87 trillion miles in a year. They also know that the galaxy of which our solar system is a part is about 100,000 light-years in diameter–about five hundred eighty seven thousand trillion miles. It is one of about a million such galaxies in the optical range of our most powerful telescopes. In our galaxy there are about 100 billion stars. The sun is one of them, a modest star burning at about 6,000 degrees Centigrade on the surface, and traveling in an orbit at 155 miles per second, which means it will take about 200 million years to complete a revolution around the galaxy.
Scientists know these things and are awed by them. And they say, “If there is a personal God, as the Christians say, who spoke this universe into being, then there is a certain respect and reverence and wonder and dread that would have to come through when we talk about him and when we worship him.”
We who believe the Bible know this even better than the scientists because we have heard something even more amazing:
“To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these (stars)? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. (Isaiah 40.25-26)
Every one of the billions of stars in the universe is there by God’s specific appointment. He knows their number. And, most astonishing of all, he knows them by name. They do his bidding as his personal agents. When we feel the weight of this grandeur in the heavens, we have only touched the hem of his garment. “Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways! And how small a whisper do we hear of him” (Job 26.14). That is why we cry ‘Be exalted, O God, Above the heavens!’ (Psalm 57.5). God is the absolute reality that everyone in the universe must come to terms with. Everything depends utterly on his will. All other realities compare to him like a raindrop compares to the ocean, or like an anthill compares to Mt. Everest. To ignore him or belittle him is unintelligible and suicidal folly. How shall one ever be the emissary of this great God who has not trembled before him with joyful wonder?
The Second Greatest Activity in the World
The most crucial issue in missions is the centrality of God in the life of the church. Where people are not stunned by the greatness of God, how can they be sent with the ringing message, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods!” (Psalm 96.4)? Missions is not first and ultimate: God is. And these are not just words. This truth is the lifeblood of missionary inspiration and endurance. William Carey, the father of modern missions, who set sail for India from England in 1793, expressed the connection:
“When I left England, my hope of India’s conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God’s cause will triumph.”
Carey and thousands like him have been moved by the vision of a great and triumphant God. That vision must come first. Savoring it in worship precedes spreading it in missions. All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.
God’s Passion for God Is the Foundation for Ours
One of the things God uses to make this truth take hold of a person and a church is the stunning realization that it is also true for God himself. Missions is not God’s ultimate goal, worship is. And when this sinks into a person’s heart everything changes. The world is often turned on its head. And everything looks different–including the missionary enterprise.
The ultimate foundation for our passion to see God glorified is his own passion to be glorified. God is central and supreme in his own affections. There are no rivals for the supremacy of God’s glory in his own heart. God is not an idolater. He does not disobey the first and great commandment. With all his heart and soul and strength and mind he delights in the glory of his manifold perfections. The most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God’s heart.
This truth, more than any other I know, seals the conviction that worship is the fuel and goal of missions. The deepest reason why our passion for God should fuel missions is that God’s passion for God fuels missions. Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God’s delight in being God. And the deepest reason why worship is the goal in missions is that worship is God’s goal. We are confirmed in this goal by the Biblical record of God’s relentless pursuit of praise among the nations. “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!” (Psalm 117.1). If it is God’s goal it must be our goal.
The Chief End of God Is to Glorify God and Enjoy Himself For Ever
All my years of preaching and teaching on the supremacy of God in the heart of God have proved that this truth hits most people like a truck laden with unknown fruit. If they survive the impact, they discover that it is the most luscious fruit on the planet. I have unpacked this truth with lengthy arguments in other places. So here I will just give a brief overview of the Biblical basis. What I am claiming is that the answer to the first question of the Westminster Catechism is the same when asked concerning God as it is when asked concerning man. Question: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.” Question: “What is the chief end of God?” Answer: “The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself for ever.”
Another way to say it is simply, God is righteous. The opposite of righteousness is to value and enjoy what is not truly valuable or rewarding. This is why people are called unrighteous in Romans 1.18. They suppress the truth of God’s value and exchange God for created things. So they belittle God and discredit his worth. Righteousness is the opposite. It means recognizing true value for what it is and esteeming it and enjoying it in proportion to its true worth. The unrighteous in 2 Thessalonians 2.10 perish because they refuse to love the truth. The righteous, then, are those who welcome a love for the truth. Righteousness is recognizing and welcoming and loving and upholding what is truly valuable. God is righteous. This means that he recognizes, welcomes, loves and upholds with infinite jealousy and energy what is infinitely valuable, namely, the worth of God. God’s righteousness passion and delight is to display and uphold his infinitely valuable glory. This is not a vague theological conjecture. It flows inevitably from dozens of Biblical texts that show God in the relentless pursuit of praise and honor from creation to consummation.
Probably no text in the Bible reveals the passion of God for his own glory more clearly and bluntly than Isaiah 48.9-11 where God says,
“For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
I have found that for many people these words come like six hammer blows to a man-centered way of looking at the world:
For my name’s sake! For the sake of my praise! For my own sake! For my own sake! How should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another!
What this text hammers home to us is the centrality of God in his own affections. The most passionate heart for the glorification of God is God’s heart. God’s ultimate goal is to uphold and display the glory of his name.
“For the Sake of His Name among All the Nations
Paul makes crystal clear in Romans 1.5 that his mission and calling are for the name of Christ among all the nations: “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations.”
The apostle John described the motive of early Christian missionaries in the same way. He wrote to tell one of his churches that they should send out Christian brothers in a manner “worthy of God.” And the reason he gives is that “they have gone out for the sake of his name, taking nothing from the Gentiles.” ( 3 John 6-7).
John Stott comments on these two texts (Romans 1:5; 3 John 7):
“They knew that God had superexalted Jesus, enthroning him at his right hand and bestowing upon him the highest rank, in order that every tongue should confess his lordship. They longed that Jesus should receive the honor due his name.”
This longing is not a dream but a certainty. at the bottom of all our hope, when everything else has given way, we stand on this great reality: the everlasting, all- sufficient God is infinitely, unwaveringly, and eternally committed to the glory of his great and holy name. For the sake of his fame among the nations he will act. His name will not be profaned forever. The mission of the church will be victorious. He will vindicate his people and his cause in all the earth.
The absence of [David] Brainerd‘s passion for God is the great cause of missionary weakness in the churches. This was Andrew Murray‘s judgement a hundred years ago:
“As we seek to find out why, with such millions of Christians, the real army of God that is fighting the hosts of darkness is so small, the only answer is–lack of heart. The enthusiasm of the kingdom is missing. And that is because there is so little enthusiasm for the King.”
The zeal of the church for the glory of her King will not rise until pastors and mission leaders and seminary teachers make much more of the King. When the glory of God himself saturates our preaching and teaching and conversation and writings, and when he predominates above our talk of methods and strategies and psychological buzz words and cultural trends, then the people might begin to feel that he is the central reality of their lives and that the spread of his glory is more important than all their possessions and all their plans.
The Call of God
God is calling us above all else to be the kind of people whose theme and passion is the supremacy of God in all of life. No one will be able to rise to the magnificence of the missionary cause who does not feel the magnificence of Christ. There will be no big world vision without a big God. There will be no passion to draw others into our worship where there is no passion for worship.
God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of his name among the nations. Therefore let us bring our affections into line with his, and, for the sake of his name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts, and join his global purpose. If we do this, God’s omnipotent commitment to his name will be over us like a banner, and we will not lose, in spite of many tribulations (Acts 9.16; Romans 8.35-39). Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. The Great Commission is first to delight yourself in the Lord (Psalm 37.4) . And then to declare, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!” (Psalm 67.4). In this way God will be glorified from beginning to end and worship will empower the missionary enterprise till the coming of the Lord.
Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgments have been revealed. –Revelation 15.3-4
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This article is excerpted from the first chapter of John Piper’s book, Let the Nations Be Glad. This article also appeared in Mission Frontiers magazine from the U.S. Center for World Mission.
Some Thoughts of Worship
Worship is an oft-misunderstood term. Many Christians think of worship as entertainment which is meant to please them. But worship is meant to focus on God, not on us.
If we examine closely the practice of worship in the Old & New Testaments we find that worship is first of all an offering of praise to God. That’s why we come together for the worship service. Who are we serving? We are serving the God who is “the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted”. (Isaiah 6:1) He is the One worthy of our worship.
Of course, when we truly worship God, when we understand Who we are worshipping; when we offer him our best, we may very well enjoy the experience. Like Isaiah, we may experience his healing touch, freeing us from the bondage to our sins, soothing the aches and pains in our bodies, and comforting us about the emotional scars from our broken and strained relationships. These are the effects of simply living in a fallen world. Who would not enjoy such soothing? Other times we are simply awed, and left breathless, by the glimpses we experience of God’s glory.
But we must keep in mind that the process God uses to bring healing may not always be comfortable. He often exposes our sin, just as he did to Isaiah. (Isaiah 6.5-8) In fact, as Jacob experienced, the healing God brings may at times leave new scars. But these scars are marks and reminders of God’s grace – a grace that is far better than the absence of scars. So it is important to remeber that when we experience God in worship we can enjoy his presence even if we feel discomfort.
Worship is about God – offering him the glory due him. But it is not as if we gain nothing in the experience. By his very nature and purpose God is changing us, transforming us to become more like we are intended to be. Experiencing worship is part of that process.
Community in Worship
In our society, we are conditioned to think primarily in terms of the individual. This also seems to be true in the church – sadly, perhaps especially so.
Noted worship scholar, Robert Webber, said that so much stress has been laid on individual conversion that worship services, in many churches, are often not worship-centered. He said that in conversion-centered services:
“… worship center[s] no longer on the objective and corporate action of the church, but on the personal experience of the worshiper.”
Webber goes on to say that the shift from the corporate to the individual happened because some early American Christians mistakenly thought that:
“… those who were converted needed less structure and were less dependent on others for worship.”
In truth, freedom comes through structure. For instance, people can’t make music if they don’t some idea about music theory and notation. Real freedom for the Christian requires that other people be involved in our lives to help us: to train, to encourage, and to stimulate one another to good works. (Hebrews 10:24)
Why does the modern Church abandon the principle of freedom through structure so often? I believe it is due to too much emphasis on I and not enough on we the corporate body. Many come to worship for themselves: what I can get out of it, or, what I put into it. Biblical worship does not exclude the individual, but it is a corporate act. It draws together the entire congregation as one voice to God and one ear to listen to Him.
We must understand, we do not stand alone when we worship. We also join with God’s people of times past because the Church draws near to heaven where all the departed saints dwell.
GRACE & PEACE 