WORSHIP-PRIORITY
OF
If we haven't
learned to be worshipers, it doesn't really matter how well we do anything
else.
If we want to
prepare for our final destination, we should begin to worship God here on
earth. Our arrival in heaven will only be a continuation of what we have
already begun. Praise is the language of heaven and the language of the
faithful on earth.
Erwin Lutzer
Taken from One Minute After You Die by Erwin Lutzer,
Moody Publishers, 1997, p. 87-88.
The Father
and Son have sought to redeem us that we may become worshipers. Jesus said that
the Son of Man came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost
(Luke 19:10). In John 4 he reveals the purpose for His seeking: "For such
people the Father seeks to be His worshipers" (vs. 23). The Father sent
Christ to seek and save for the specific purpose of producing worshiping
people.
John MacArthur
The Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p.
23.
The revolt
against hedonism has killed the spirit of worship in many churches. When you
have the notion that high moral acts must be free from self-interest, then
worship, which is one of the highest moral acts a human can perform, has to be
conceived simply as duty. And when worship is reduced to a duty it ceases to
exist. One of the great enemies of worship in our church is our own misguided
virtue. We have the vague notion that seeking our own pleasure is sin and
therefore virtue itself imprisons the longings of our hearts and smothers the
spirit of worship. For what is worship if it is not our joyful feasting upon
the banquet of God's glory?
John Piper
Worship: The Feast Of
Christian Hedonism, Sermon. September 25, 1983, www.desiringGod.org,
Used by Permission.
God wants us
to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God
and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not He
who cried, "God, where art Thou?" It was God who cried, "Adam,
where art thou?"
A.W. Tozer
Worship: The Missing Jewel. Christianity Today, v. 41, n. 5.
We’re here to
be worshippers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately
make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert
should learn to be a worshiper, and after that he can learn to be a worker…The
work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it.
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
To say that
worship is either about glorifying God or finding personal satisfaction is to
put asunder what God has joined together. His glory and your gladness are not
separate tracks moving in opposite directions. Rather His glory is in your
gladness in Him.
Sam Storms
Copied
from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms,
© 2000, p. 211. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights
reserved.
Worship is
eminently practical because adoring and affectionate praise is what restores
our sense of ultimate value. It exposes the worthless and temporary and tawdry
stuff of this world. Worship energizes the heart to seek satisfaction in Jesus
alone. In worship we are reminded that this world is fleeting and unworthy of
our heart’s devotion. Worship connects our souls with the transcendent power of
God and awakens in us appreciation for true beauty. It pulls back the veil of
deception and exposes the ugliness of sin and Satan. Worship is a joyful rebuke
of the world. When our hearts are riveted on Jesus everything else in life
becomes so utterly unnecessary and we become far less demanding.
Sam Storms
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.70-71. www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Where God is
at the center of things, worship inevitably follows. Where there is no spirit
of worship, there God has been dethroned and displaced.
Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 107, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
There is a
difference between going to a service “for the worship” and going to a service
“to worship the Lord.” The distinction appears to be a minor one, but it may
imply the difference between the worship of God and the worship of music!
Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 110, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
The single
most important activity of your life is to worship God. You were made for this
– to offer your whole life, in all its parts, as a hymn of praise to the Lord.
When the psalmist says: “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being,
praise His holy name” (Ps. 103:1), he is speaking as a spiritual athlete in
peak condition; his entire life is unreservedly directed to the Lord in praise;
whole-heartedness of devotion to God is his most obvious characteristic.
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Healthy Christian Growth, by Permission of the Banner of Truth
Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1991, p. 7.
Just as an
indescribable sunset or a breath-taking mountaintop vista evokes a spontaneous
response, so we cannot encounter the worthiness of God without the response of
worship. If you could see God at this moment, you would so utterly understand
how worthy He is of worship that you would instinctively fall on you face and
worship Him.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life, 1991, p.
87, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com,
All rights reserved.
For more information please see the website: www.BiblicalSpirituality.org.
If
God did not insist that we worship Him alone, we would have to conclude that He
is evil, or at least two-faced, since He would not be directing us to the one
thing we desperately need.
Scott Hafemann
What Does it Mean to Know God? by Scott Hafemann taken
from The God of Promise and the Life of Faith by Scott Hafemann, copyright
2001, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois
60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, page
41.
Worship isn’t
a means to an end, but the end of all means
R.C. Sproul Jr.
Pragmatic
Principle, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 59. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
We do not
design [worship] for the lost, nor for the found. We listen to the seeker of
the lost, as do as He commands. We come to worship Him in spirit and truth. We
come to worship Him in the beauty of His holiness. We come to worship Him, for
His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.
R.C. Sproul Jr.
Pragmatic
Principle, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 59. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
Music
is hateful and intolerable to the devil. I truly believe, and do not mind
saying, that there is no art like music, next to theology. It is the only art,
next to theology, that can calm the agitations of the soul, which plainly shows
that the devil, the source of anxiety and sadness, flees from the sound of
music as he does from religious worship. That is why the Scriptures are full of
psalms and hymns, in which praise is given to God. That is why, when we gather
round God’s throne in heaven, we shall sing His glory. Music is the perfect way
to express our love and devotion to God. It is one of the most magnificent and
delightful presents God has given us.
Martin Luther
God is great,
and worship is our response to His greatness! The church’s primary purpose is
to insure that God receives the glory He desires and deserves. That is why the
saints gather together to corporately rehearse the
greatness of God through worship. The focus of the church should be the
worth-ship of God. Evangelism’s main goal is first and foremost to recruit
worshippers for God. When Christ is embraced as offered in the Gospel, the
believer is brought into a personal worshipping relationship with God the
Father.
Mike Chastain
The Goal of Redemption, Tabletalk,
Feb. 2004, p. 55, Used by Permission.