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by
Bob Kauflin
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January 18 - January 19, 2019
“We should consider it the great end of our existence to be found numbered among the worshipers of God.”2
Better than having all the power, wealth, talent, intelligence, or pleasure you could ever imagine is being a worshiper of God forever.
We can have no higher goal than to take our place among those who revel—unceasingly, joyfully, wholeheartedly, and eternally—in our great and awesome God.
God isn’t seeking worshipers only among the significant and popular people, the successful and powerful ones. The Maker of the universe is seeking true worshipers among us all.
Any definition of true worship that denies or minimizes God’s supremacy, authority, and uniqueness is unbiblical and will lead to idolatry.
In an act of unfathomable love, Deity becomes dust, the Maker becomes the maligned, the Creator becomes the cursed. God comes in Christ to restore the relationship we rejected in the garden. We learn that the greatest gift God gives us is himself.
Jesus is God’s ultimate statement that he will provide a way for us to worship him—not only in this life but for all eternity.
Mercy that’s deserved is no longer mercy. And worship that doesn’t begin with mercy is no longer worship.
If we want to grow as true worshipers of God, we won’t simply listen to more music—we’ll seek to encounter him in our Bibles.
Unless we read our Bibles well, we won’t know the God we’re worshiping.
Every church or individual Christian who claims to be Spirit-led must be Word-fed. If we want to know more of the Spirit’s power in our lives, we would be wise to fill ourselves with the riches of his Word.
It’s significant that in Scripture the Hebrew and Greek words we most often translate as “worship” originally expressed the custom of bowing down or casting oneself on the ground.2 Other “worship” words in the Bible convey a variety of attitudes and activities that include submission, sacrifice, serving, and even fear.3 They cover what we do, not only in our meetings but also in our daily lives. They speak to our words and actions as well as our minds and hearts.
To worship God is to humble everything about ourselves and exalt everything about him.
true worshipers, enabled and redeemed by God, respond to God’s self-revelation in ways that exalt his glory in Christ in their minds, affections, and wills, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
if we meet as God intended—to sing, pray, read, hear, and obey his Word, to proclaim his praise in song, and to rehearse, revel in, and respond to the gospel—then we’ll be glorifying God in a greater way than if we did those things alone.
God has uniquely designed the church for true worshipers to experience, enjoy, and be edified by their common life in Christ.
The more we understand the depths of love God has shown us, the more we’ll want to serve others with that same love.
True worshipers have the good of others in view because they have Christ’s glory in view. The two are inseparable. We should never think about exalting God without thinking about serving and building up others as well.
“Singing is not an option for the Christian; no one is excused. Vocal skill is not a criterion.”
“Every culture has songs and rhymes to help children learn the alphabet, numbers, and other lists. Even as adults, we’re limited in our ability to memorize series or to hold them in mind unless we use mnemonic devices or patterns—and the most powerful of these devices are rhyme, meter, and song.”
“Worship of God should always involve the emotions; how can we praise a holy God who has redeemed us without getting emotional about it? But what should move our emotions is not the sonorous tones of the organ or the insistent beat of the drums, but the mind’s apprehension of truth about God.”
John Piper helps us understand: The reason we sing is because there are depths and heights and intensities and kinds of emotions that will not be satisfactorily expressed by mere prosaic forms, or even poetic readings. There are realities that demand to break out of prose into poetry and some demand that poetry be stretched into song. . . . Singing is the Christian’s way of saying: God is so great that thinking will not suffice, there must be deep feeling; and talking will not suffice, there must be singing.7
John Calvin pointed out how helpful bodily posture and actions can be in encouraging our own souls: The inward attitude certainly holds first place in prayer, but outward signs, kneeling, uncovering the head, lifting up the hands, have a twofold use. The first is that we may employ all our members for the glory and worship of God; secondly, that we are, so to speak, jolted out of our laziness by this help. There is also a third use in solemn and public prayer, because in this way the sons of God profess their piety, and they inflame each other with reverence of God. But just as the lifting up
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If singing together is meant to express our unity in Christ, that means every voice matters. Including yours.
When we sing biblically sound, gospel-informed lyrics, our affections for God can be deepened.
True worshipers come to God through Christ in the power of his Spirit. And we do so in response to and under the authority of his Word.
Our worship isn’t only about God; it involves God. It isn’t only to and for God; it’s the way we encounter and engage with God. The one who enables us to encounter God in the way I’m describing is God himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit.
“If worshipers are not consciously dependent upon the Holy Spirit, their worship is not truly Christian.”
Let’s be clear. No worship leader, pastor, or musician can bring us into the presence of God. It’s not a certain prayer, a particular liturgy, a sacred object, the right bodily posture, or a certain mind-set. Only Jesus can lead us into God’s presence, and he accomplished that through his substitutionary death, which forever removed the curtain of God’s judgment that separated us from his presence (Heb. 10:19–22).
Encountering God generally bears the fruit of things like a greater hunger for his Word, a deeper love for the Savior, and a greater passion for a holy life.
“The Lord told me” is an unwise way to begin any sentence, unless you’re quoting Scripture. Subjective experiences don’t have objective authority.
Theologian Andreas Köstenberger reminds us, “Biblical spirituality does not consist primarily of mystical, emotional experience, inward impressions and feelings, introspective meditation, or a monastic withdrawal from the world. The primary spiritual disciplines advocated by Scripture are prayer and the obedient study of God’s Word.”7
Our lives here are only the cover and title page to what lies ahead. For Christians, death begins “Chapter One of the Great Story,” as C. S. Lewis writes, “which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
But the best part about heaven won’t be the landscape, the activities, or the friends we’ll recognize from this life. It will be finally beholding the face of the One who left his throne to redeem us. We’ll look into his eyes and know instantly that no pleasure on earth compares with his love.
True worshipers hold fast to the hope that one day we will do nothing but boast in the Lord. For we consider it the great end of our existence to find ourselves numbered among the worshipers of God. There can be no higher purpose. There can be no greater joy. And for those who have gratefully received God’s mercy in Jesus Christ, there can be no other end.
