WORSHIP: DELIGHT IN GOD (Part 5)

Worship is to delight in the Lord.

The book "Song of Solomon" is a teaching on the sexual delight between a man and a woman. It could easily be a teaching for marriage, love and romance between a husband and wife. This book is also often thought of as an allegory about Christ and the Church, though it is not referred to in the New Testament as a type of Christ and the Church. However, it could be viewed as both and therefore we can't reject either interpretation.

Regardless of these perspectives, the “Song of Solomon” does reveal how God has made us to long for and to desire delight. This desire and delight is to be directed toward God. As we worship, we take pleasure in God. Not in God's gifts, but God himself.

Worship does bring transformation. Worship changes us. When we worship, we experience the alchemy of transformation. Those taken up with God are changed into His glorious image.

Conclusion
Jesus said God is seeking worshipers. In worship we are changed. All ministry must flow from this center, otherwise it is simply a religious exercise. It is legalism and not the grace of worship. We are ultimately gripped not by an objective assent to an idea, but by a personal encounter with the living God. As John Piper writes in his book Desiring God, “To see Him and know Him and be in His presence is the soul’s final feast. Beyond this there is no quest. Words fail. We call it pleasure, joy, delight but these are weak pointers to the unspeakable experience.” May our delight be found in Christ alone, who is worthy of our worship.

A Lonely People: Designed For Community (Part 1)

A study by the American Council of Life Insurance reported that the loneliest group in America is college students. That’s surprising! Next on the list are divorced people, welfare recipients, single mothers, rural students, housewives, and the elderly.

Americans are some of the loneliest people in the world. We are a mobile society where many graduate from high school, move away from home for college, and then move again for a job. Most people will switch jobs 2-3 times. This contributes to our loneliness, and you couple this with our high divorce rate and that makes for some very lonely people.

Concert attendance has been slowly declining over the last 10 years because people no longer want to go and get lost in a crowd. In contrast, another trend over the past 10 years is that coffee houses are up. One person was quoted in The State Journal’s article on coffee houses, "I come here because I like an atmosphere of busyness, I don’t like to feel like I’m alone."

The popular show Friends takes place in a coffeehouse where friends in New York City just spend time together while trying to make it in life. The popular show in the 90s called Seinfeld was said to be about nothing, but was really about a group of friends hanging out and talking about meaningless stuff.

We live in a society that is extremely lonely and many have experienced this feeling firsthand. Charles Swindoll mentioned a Kansas newspaper ad which read, "I will listen to you talk for 30 minutes without comment for $5.00." Swindoll said, "Sounds like a hoax, doesn’t it? But the person was serious. Did anybody call? You bet. It wasn’t long before this individual was receiving 10 to 20 calls a day. The pain of loneliness was so sharp that some were willing to try anything for a half hour of companionship"

Coffeehouses, being with friends and hanging out will satisfy a need in your life, but it’s not the totality of life experience that God wants for you.

God’s Plan for Community
God’s desire is for you to experience "community." In God’s design of us, He said it’s “not good to be alone.” God created the church as a community of people gathered around Jesus and who are called to be together on a mission. Real community is "hanging out with a spiritual purpose." We need to learn to come together for a spiritual purpose.

Larry Crabb makes the simple statement, "Community matters." That’s like saying oxygen matters. Community is essential in a healthy Church. As our lungs require air, so our souls require what only community provides.

You are designed by God (who himself is a group of three persons living in profound relationship with each other) to live in relationship. How can a person tell if he or she is experiencing true community? Answer this question: “How often during the week do I get together with people with a spiritual purpose in mind?”

In a local church, you can experience community any number of ways.

• Sunday morning worship: we gather together and edify one another.
• Become involved in a ministry team.
• Get involved in a small group.
• Pray together with others.
• Encourage spontaneous gatherings with a spiritual purpose.
  

Feeling a bit lonely or detached? Start hanging out with others and have a spiritual purpose!

WORSHIP: PRAISE MUST BE EXPRESSED (Part 4)

Praise must be expressed. The expression of what you are enjoying is the consummation of it. There is a fulfillment and joy found in sharing your expression.

ADMIRATION AND REFLECTION

Praise is admiration and reflection. Just wanting an experience is religious existentialism. Worship must be rooted in reality. God loves us and the experience that His Spirit pours out is a greater reality of what we know. Our worship is a realization of that experience and is flooded with reality. We have a greater consciousness of being with the Lord. There is an appetite for God within us. David expresses this when he declared, "As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Ps. 42:1-2). An increasing appetite for God will move us on.

WORSHIP ENTAILS ENCOUNTER

We highly value being in God’s presence. When we worship, God touches us and dwells with us right where we are. The Message Bible describes Jesus’ coming to the earth as God “moving into the neighborhood” (John 1:14). God remains present among us today and worship manifests Him. In worship, there is intensity, God coming upon us with power.

In worship we express that we desire to encounter God. One song expresses this longing with the simple phrase, "I long for you, oh Lord…" We always want to know God and encounter Him in our worship!

We need to long to encounter God and find our highest joy in Him. As John Piper explains in his book Desiring God,

"The enemy of worship is not that our desire for pleasure is too strong but too weak! We have settled for a home, a family, a few friends, a job, a television, a microwave oven, an occasional night out, a yearly vacation, and perhaps a new personal computer. We have accustomed ourselves to such meager, short-lived pleasures that our capacity for joy has shriveled. And so our worship has shriveled."

We must re-awaken ourselves to knowing and encountering the reality of the living God. He is our greatest delight.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
(Psalm 63:1-3 ESV)

WORSHIP: PRAISE (Part 3)

Worship flows from an appreciation that comes out of knowledge. We consistently praise the things we appreciate. This begs the question: Do we really know God? Do we run out of things to praise God about? We can appreciate what we know, but it is difficult to praise what we don't know.

For example, you can't understand and appreciate football unless you grasp how the game is played and the skill involved. You can be in the stands of the football stadium while others are excited, but it doesn't help you if you don’t understand the game. Worship is not caught. Worship occurs in the midst of a relationship. A person who spends time getting to know God and His ways will praise Him for who He is and all He’s done.

The more we study, meditate and learn of God, the more we want to worship Him. We become fascinated about God. Study and read real material about God and not just the latest spiritual fads found in paperbacks. It is good to delve into biographies of great men and women of faith. It is good to read healthy theology written by godly men such as Wayne Grudem and Gordon Fee. We learn of God and get thrilled. Let’s pursue the goal to learn something of God on a continual basis.

In addition to reading, biblical worship also strengthens us with the truth about our God. Excellent worship songs speak of the wonders of God. When we sing great worship songs, do we really know what's behind these words? As we sing in worship, let’s reflect on the truth revealed about God and grow in our wonder and awe of Him and His great love for us.

We must know God, and true worship flows out of this relationship. Otherwise, our worship is weak, shallow and more focused on ourselves than on God. Our praise is enriched by our identification with Christ. For example, you can appreciate a good football team, but there’s much more excitement when it is your team. When my team scores…it's my team! I get excited! As believers, Jesus is our Savior and this truth comes out of relationship and out of a personal knowledge of Him. The less we understand, the less we praise. The more we understand, the more we praise.

Let me ask, are you impressed with God? If so, let’s praise Him.

WORSHIP: THANKSGIVING (Part 2)

It’s appropriate to be a thankful people. In his book A Passion for Holiness, J.I. Packer says, “No religion anywhere has ever laid such stress on the need for thanksgiving, nor called on its adherents so incessantly and insistently to give God thanks as does the religion of the Bible.”

In Psalm 100:4, the psalmist instructs us to "enter His gates with thanksgiving." This is the first order of worship. God's reign has created a natural order. Romans 1 speaks of the downward spiral of being unthankful and ungrateful. This downward spiral starts because people do not give thanks. Therefore, one thing that should characterize us as God’s people is that we are thankful. One of the first things we teach our children is to say “thank you.” This should be our initial attitude as we worship God as well. Thankfulness is to be a chief characteristic in our daily life and worship. Gratefulness in every circumstance is the obvious evidence of one’s faith in a sovereign God.

WORSHIP: DELIGHT IN THE LORD (Part 1)

Worship is vital for a healthy Christian life. Our Newfrontiers vision and values declare we want churches “where God’s presence is prized and where God is enthusiastically worshiped with genuine freedom for men and women to worship publicly in the Holy Spirit, to use spiritual gifts and to participate in ‘body ministry.’”

Worship is grounded in truth. In John 4:1-24, Jesus gives great teaching on worship and brings solid truth on the back of it. Speaking to an unsaved woman, Jesus teaches an amazing truth when he tells her, "God is looking for worshipers." God is the only one worthy of worship. The question that comes to mind is "Why does God want us to worship Him?" Does God have a problem?

We, in fact, know that God doesn't need anything. However, we need to worship Him. When we worship the Lord, we gaze upon Him, come out of unreality into reality and in that process, we are changed.

True worship differs from religious form and practice. At times, we can go through the motions. Isaiah spoke of this with Israel, "They worship me with their lips but their heart is far from me" (Is 29:13). Religious activity is external and merely a form. God is seeking heart-felt worship that Jesus described as being “in spirit and truth.” Prayer and faith comes out of our worship life. Motivation to pray and to share the gospel comes out of real worship.

In the Psalms, David calls out to God, “Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you” (Ps. 5:11). David instructs us to “Delight yourself in the Lord” (Ps. 37:4). This inner delight is at the heart of true worship.

Joplin Update

Bryan Mowrey of Jubilee Church, St. Louis, is part of my Newfrontiers USA apostolic team and he oversees and serves our churches in the Midwest. Here’s his helpful update of our support for Christ’s Church (the Newfrontiers USA church in Joplin) and the local Joplin community.

Any time there is a big event like the devastation in Joplin, there is a lot of information and misinformation to digest. Moreover, what’s communicated from afar is different than reality up close. I want to update you on the Jubilee/Newfrontiers effort to help Joplin and hopefully bring some clarity.

1) The devastation that this tornado has caused has not been overemphasized. It was a horrific tornado that destroyed a 1/3 of the town and the scene on the ground is unreal. It will take years, not days or weeks, to repair what was destroyed.

2) NOBODY from the Newfrontiers church in Joplin (Christ’s Church of Joplin) has been hurt and everyone is fine, has a place to stay and are optimistic about their present and future on a practical level. No one in the church needs any help at this point and all efforts to serve are directed toward the city of Joplin and those outside the church.

3) While there is a small team of Newfrontiers people who are going to go down there, there is NOT a very big immediate need for help. In fact, volunteers who want to help are being turned away. They don’t need food. They don’t need water. They don’t need clothes at this point. Those things are currently in abundance. A lot of people don’t want their homes touched until the insurance companies come out. Large teams of people going to Joplin either this week or even the next week could actually be counterproductive because it would put an administrative burden on the church to find stuff for people to do.

4) The need for assistance for people of Joplin will remain for weeks to come and as the attention turns away from that city, our help could make a big impact as the volunteer supply will start to decline. I am thinking that we could organize a team to go down there in a few weeks to a month…perhaps over July 4th weekend. If you were planning on going down there this weekend to help, by all means go, but just understand that the real need may be a few weeks out.

Our Joplin brothers and sisters are really looking forward to seeing you at Celebration Midwest! One of the great things about these conferences is having face to face contact with those we are praying for and are on mission with!