WORSHIP-INDIVIDUAL
So you can
see what is happening in the New Testament. Worship is being significantly
deinstitutionalized, delocalized, de-externalized. The
whole thrust is being taken off of ceremony and seasons and places and forms
and is being shifted to what is happening in the heart – not just on Sunday but
every day and all the time in all of life.
John Piper
Brothers,
We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem Baptist Church, 2002, p. 232.
Worship is a response to greatness. A
man does not become a worshipper merely by saying, “Now I shall become a
worshipper.” That is impossible. That cannot be done. A man becomes a worshipper
when he sees something great that calls forth his admiration or his worship.
That is the only way worshippers are made. Worship answers to greatness.
Tom Wells
A
Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth
Trust, Carlisle, PA. p. 23
All of life for the Christian is to be viewed as worship
(Rom 12:1), not just the Sunday morning service. In fact, the level of
Christian maturity can be gauged by how much worship takes place outside of
the Sunday morning worship service.
A. Blake White
A Biblical
Theology of Evangelism and Worship, Sound of Grace, April 2009. Used by
Permission.
If we haven't
learned to be worshippers it doesn't really matter how well we do anything
else. Worship changes us or it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy
One of eternity is to change. Worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in
holy obedience.
Erwin Lutzer
Men of Integrity, v. 1, n. 1.
Worship
cannot be isolated or relegated to just one place, time, or segment of our
lives. We cannot verbally thank and praise God while living lives of
selfishness and carnality. That kind of effort at worship is a perversion. Real
acts of worship must be the overflow of a worshiping life… As God warms the
heart with righteousness and love, the resulting life of praise that boils over
is the truest expression of worship.
John MacArthur
The
Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p. 13.
So the
crucial factor in worship in the church is not the form of worship, but the
state of the hearts of the saints. If our corporate worship isn’t the
expression of our individual worshiping lives, it is unacceptable. If you think
you can live anyway you want and then go to church on Sunday morning and turn
on worship with the saints, you’re wrong.
John MacArthur
The
Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p. 104.
Every
believer is a living, breathing temple in which God dwells. That means
believers can worship anywhere, at any time – God goes with them in an abiding
presence. A Christian can worship Him at the beach, in the mountains, driving
down the road, sitting under a tree, walking in the woods, running in the
country, sitting in the living room, in a church building, or anywhere under
any kind of circumstance or condition. The sphere of worship is unlimited.
John MacArthur
The
Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p. 100-101.
The source of
most of the problems people have in their Christian lives relates to two
things: either they are not worshiping six days a week with their life, or they
are not worshiping one day a week with the assembly of the saints. We need
both.
John MacArthur
The
Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p. 105.
The supreme
act of worship is not giving money, attending church or singing hymns, but
giving oneself (Rom. 12:1-2). As a “holy priesthood,” believers are “to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5),
the most important of which is themselves. Only when it is from a devout life,
given to Christ wholly, does financial giving become an acceptable act of
worship.
John MacArthur
Second
Corinthians, Moody, 2003, p. 284.
We must,
during all our labour and in all else we do, even in
our reading and writing, holy though both may be – I say more, even during our
formal devotions and spoken prayers – pause for some short moment, as often
indeed as we can, to worship God in the depth of our heart, to savour Him, though it be but in passing, and as it were by
stealth. Since you are not unaware that God is present before you whatever you
are doing, that he is at the depth and centre of your soul, why not then pause
from time to time at least from that which occupies you outwardly, even from
your spoken prayers, to worship Him inwardly, to praise him, petition him, to
offer him your heart and thank him? What can God have that gives Him greater
satisfaction than that a thousand times a day all His creatures should thus
pause to withdraw and worship him in the heart?
Brother Lawrence
Has it ever
occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are
automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not
to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.
So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ,
are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to
become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer
fellowship. Social religion is perfected
when private religion is purified"
A.W. Tozer
I can safely
say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man
or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for
heaven.
A.W. Tozer
How is it
possible to worship God publicly once each week when we do not worship Him
privately throughout the week? Can we expect the flames of our worship of God
to burn brightly in public on the Lord’s Day when they barely flicker for Him
in secret on other days? Isn’t it
because we do not worship well in private that our corporate worship experience
often dissatisfies us?
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 93-94, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
We minimize
our joy when we neglect the daily worship of God in private. It is one of the
great blessings of life that God does not limit our access to Him and enjoyment
of His presence to one day per week! Daily strength, guidance, and
encouragement are available to us. An invitation to grow in intimacy with Jesus
Christ Himself is open every day. Think of it: The Lord Jesus Christ is willing
to meet with you privately for as long as you want, and He is willing- even
eager- to meet with you every day!
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 94, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com,
All rights reserved.
For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
From a heart
overflowing with gratitude, we will want to honor and glorify God by gratefully
offering back to Him the many good gifts He has bestowed on us. We will not go
to church to be entertained, to see "what we can get out of it" for
our own private gratification, but rather to praise and worship the triune God
of grace and glory
Author Unknown
Describing
modern man, one has written, “Modern man worships his work, works at his play,
and plays at his worship.”
Author Unknown
We are told
men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted.
But, we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, do you think,
needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground?
I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I
would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well-turned over, and the clods
broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more preparation needed
by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer
than by the preacher.
C.H. Spurgeon
Fruitful and
acceptable worship begins before it begins.
Alexander MacLaren
Above all
sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing
Him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend
strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried
away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be
such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds
of heaven.
John Wesley
God seeks and
values the gifts we bring Him – gifts of praise, thanksgiving, service, and
material offerings. In all such giving at the altar we enter into the highest
experiences of fellowship. But the gift is acceptable to God in the measure to
which the one who offers it is in fellowship with Him in character and conduct;
and the test of this is in our relationships with our fellow men. We are thus
charged to postpone giving to God until right relationships are established
with others. Could the neglect of this be the explanation of the barrenness of
our worship? (Matt. 5:24)
G. Campbell Morgan
Regardless of
the reaction of others, one thing is certain: True worship and devotion will
make our lives fragrant and will perfume the environment around us. Our homes,
our churches, even our places of work will bear the sweet scent of our
devotion. Most important, the Lord Jesus will be pleased. And ultimately that
is all that really matters.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
A
Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 254.
Lawful
worship consists in obedience alone.
John Calvin
[After]
worshiping God as a way of life the previous six days in both private and
family worship…public worship will be a natural outflow.
Jerry Marcellino
Family
Worship, Audubon Press, 2002, p. 9.
The
lifelessness experienced in so many churches in our day can be traced directly
to the multitudes of families in those churches which contain Sunday-morning
Christians only. It is plain to see the cause for such deadness when such
individuals are not consistently worshiping God in private. Statistics reveal
that only 11 percent of all professing Christians in America read their Bible
or some portion of it once a day. If so few professing Christians are spending
time alone with God, it should not be surprising that family worship as a
practice among professing Christian families is practically nonexistent.
Jerry Marcellino
Family
Worship, Audubon Press, 2002, p. 10.
We are a
singing people. And there is a reason for this. The reality of God and Christ
and creation and salvation and heaven and hell are simply too great for mere
speaking; they must also be sung. This means that the reality of God and his
work is so great that we are not merely to think truly about it, but also feel
duly about it. Think truly and feel duly – that is, feel with the kind and
depth and intensity of emotion that is appropriate to the reality that is truly
known.
Ralph Martin
It is easy to
praise the Lord from the heights of His love, but it is rich to worship Him
from the depths of His love. If you are in a time of testing or trial may I
encourage you today to stop and worship the Lord. Find comfort in His word and
in the obedience that comes from surrendering our will and rights to Him. Job
prayed in the course of his trials, "Though He may slay me, I will hope in
Him." Our Lord is sovereign – He is in control of all things. There is
mercy in the wilderness dear friend. Come to Christ Jesus today, worship Him in
spirit and truth, and drink of His mercy as He molds you to Himself.
Steve
Camp
Mercy in
the Wilderness.