The Necessity of maturity in worship

The crux of this class is has been the acceptable forms of worship as we gather corporately. Yet besides the form of our worship, I believe there also is need for theological depth in our worship, allowing us progress in our sanctification. The book of Hebrews tells us there is a certain level of maturity that believers should possess in relation to our spiritual lives.

In Hebrew Chapter 5:11-6:3 in verse 12 of chapter 5 the author says, “By this time you ought to be teachers” yet the believers in this passage need to be taught once again the “basics” about God. The writer goes on to say believers need to leave the elementary understanding of Christ and move on to maturity. The mature believer should not need to have reaffirmed and reestablished the primary issues regarding faith and salvation.

This is not to say doctrine concerning Christ is not necessary, but for those who are mature and should have reached a point where they could and should be teaching other believers should have no misconceptions about the basis of their faith. Mature believers should not have question of whether it is better for them to turn back to the life they formerly lived as unbelievers. They should be pressing past the primary doctrines, while also being able to account for the faith they have to others.

With maturity of the believers being a point of emphasis for the believers in the book of Hebrews I do not think it is, a stretch to ask what is the level of maturity in our own churches. In his 2008 book Christless Christianity Michael Horton testifies to the many shortcomings of the evangelical church today as the depth of theology and understanding has been traded in for ways to improve our morality and transform our lives through a __ (you fill in the blank) step plan.

We need never to assume the power and the work of the cross, because this leads us away from the cross and the one to whom all the glory belongs. A sure contributor to the artificial Christianity in the evangelical church today is substituting God’s prescribed as worship for what man desires. God’s word prescribes specific forms of acceptable worship. For us to deviate from what God has intended for worship to consist of is to undermine his authority and omniscience regarding himself and what he desires.

Now our worship does not go without advantage to the believer. As we are cooperating in corporate worship as God intended we grow in our sanctification, which is manifest in our growth in the areas of knowledge about God, our love for God. Ultimately, our worship in a right way brings the ultimate glory to God. The God who the book of Revelation 5:13b says, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” This proclamation does not come as a random happening or by chance, the proclamation is given in response to the Lamb’s (Jesus’) shed blood as to ransom his people from sin and bondage. This is a clear happening of God being worshiped because of what has been revealed about God, a model for us to consider the next time we gather for worship.

Final Essay - Preparation

One of the greatest lessons I have learned from this class, as it relates to corporate worship, is that of the importance of our preparation for worship.

On page 68 of Gospel Worship, Burroughs states this unfortunate and troublesome fact of life, “Most men let out their hearts so much to other things, as their consciences cannot but tell them, that if God called the to prayer at such a time in the day, they would be altogether unfit for it.” This is an issue we deal with every day of the week, both in our personal worship and in our corporate worship. We much too easily give our minds to this thing over here or that thing over there, and we allow our attention to be captivated by pursuits of pleasure or of work. It is a shame our attentions and interests are given to so many things and things that are unworthy of its attention. But that is a rabbit trail I will refrain from going down for the sake of the purpose of this essay. Alas, when we come to worship our God, He is the last thing on our minds because our minds have been much busied with other things. To combat such a thing there must be preparation for the service. Time to reign in our wondering minds must be taken before we come to the service. Burroughs puts it this way, “[We must be] very serious in the examination of [our] hearts, to endeavor to work [our] hearts into mourning for [our] sin, and to labor to possess [our] souls with the presence of God.” (p. 69) Burroughs suggests we must understand the great weightiness of the glory of the Person we are about to commune with. We are going to come into the presence of God, the Sovereign Creator of the World. For this we must reel in our wandering minds and hearts.

The duty of worship is a great thing, a great task (p. 53). It is not something that we can take lightly or that we can participate in while sleeping (though some attempt to do so). And if we realize how great the business is of drawing nigh to God, it will cause us to realize the need for preparation.

Burroughs mentions five things we must to do in preparation on pages 58-62. I will not get into them in this essay, but summarized they are as follows: realizing Who God is, removing ourselves from the cares of the world, and keeping ourselves holy, set apart, so that we may be ready to engage ourselves in worship to our great God when the time comes (specifically corporate worship, as this essay is about). May we not come into the Sunday service half asleep and completely unprepared to commune with the God of the universe, but may we prepare ourselves ahead of time (let us keep Saturday evening and Sunday morning a holy time) so that we can come into the service prepared to give glory to God.

Worship is not about us.

The most important lesson to remember about worship is that it is not for us it is for God. That is what Gospel Worship is talking about; worshiping God has nothing to do with us except to be in the right mind set for Him. We are supposed to give praise to God while thinking of Him, not our selves. We might find ourselves thinking about how worshiping God is going to be beneficial to us and we are not in the correct mind set when this is happening. It is a time when we are lifting up our Savior in praise and only focusing on Him.

Worship includes giving something, and that something is our selves. We are to be giving God our full attention when we worship Him. All God wants is our attention, He wants all the time He is able to get with us. If we are only thinking about ourselves that is very sinful. When we give God our attention He wants all of it, He deserves all of it. God is worthy of our worship and we need to show that by not focusing on ourselves anymore.

When we go to take and eat the Lord’s Supper we ask of His forgiveness first. If you do not talk to God about your sins and ask of His forgiveness for everything before you take the Lord’s Supper then there is no use in taking it. This is because we are not being respectful of Him and we are not thinking about Him. We are to take the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him not of our sins. We ask for forgiveness so that when we do eat and drink of Him we are doing it with clean souls. We need to come to the Lord clean.

When we pray to God we should not unroll a list of things we want Him to do for us. We need to thank Him for everything, come to Him asking for forgiveness. Worshiping God has nothing to do with our selves; it is all about Him and how great He is.

Worship Is For God’s Glory!

Jeremiah Burroughs view on the nature of corporate worship is one of the clearest explanation I have ever read on a book. A worship that is worthy of God. Burroughs is arguing that worship is for God’s glory, plain and simple. It’s not to make myself look better, and it is certainly not supposed to be a performance that elicits praise from those around us. It is so easy for us to be captivated by ourselves and what others think of us that Burroughs once again provides a helpful reminder to make worship about God’s glory, not ours. At first I was a little nervous to read centuries ago book but I find it quite easy to read and the message is as relevant today as it was when it was written. Perhaps more so. It is living proof of the timeless nature and value of the living Word.

Burroughs takes as his text Leviticus 10:3 which reads, “Then Moses said unto Aaron, it is what the Lord spoke saying, ‘I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all people I will be glorified.’ And Aaron held his peace.” He narrows in on the phrase “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me.” I know that God will be sanctified in those who draw nigh to Him. There are these two things in the point: if I do not sanctify God’s name, God will sanctify His name in a way of justice. If I do sanctify His name, then He will sanctify His name in a way of mercy towards me. When I worship every Sunday morning I need to realize that the God that I am worshipping is the same God in Leviticus 10. The importance of corporate worship really came alive through Gospel Worship. I believe that corporate worship exists to draw the whole congregation into praise of God. Jeremiah Burroughs exposes the natural tendency in man to depreciate the holiness of God in how we worship.

My brethren, I beseech you, learn this lesson this morning. Learn to account the duties of God’s worship as great matters. They are the greatest things that concern you here in this world, for they are the homage that you tender up to the high God, as you heard, and those things wherein God communicates Himself in choice mercies. (pg.70)

What underlies Burroughs’ thoughts here is something that deserves further consideration. There is something fundamentally different about the time of corporate worship than there is in all of life-worship. Even Jesus said that when two or three are gathered in his name, he is there among them. And the whole NT is unanimous that the gathering of the saints is very important.

The Foundation of All Worship

Many conversations about worship employ a syllogism which appears coherent, but often leads to strange conclusions. It is roughly as follows:

(Premise 1) Person A possesses Ability X

(Premise 2) God designed Person A in this manner to glorify Him

(Premise 3) Worship Services are a time when God is glorified

(Conclusion) Person A must perform Ability X in a worship service to best glorify God

Lest we fall prey to judge this thinking too quickly, I shall provide two examples. Suppose that a man is gifted to graciously understand and apply the word of God in his own life and the life of other believers. This man will demonstrate the fruit of the spirit and the qualifications for a pastor, and in his case our syllogism proves valid: he ought to be considered for the position of elder.

Our second example is a gifted man: a gourmet chef. For him it is not so easy. Yes, God has prescribed his New Covenant people to consume food during the assembled corporate worship time. But unleavened bread is not in any way broad enough to make use of our chef’s talent. What then must become of him and of his desire to contribute? It seems that he might be employed in the kitchen for potluck dinners and outreach events, but even that offers little hope for his Bouillabaisse: Poissons de roche, bay scallops, mussels, shrimps, fennel-saffron broth, rouille & garlic croutons. Alas, our syllogism proves invalid: he possesses the ability, God so designed him, but he cannot, with this particular ability, contribute to a worship service like the first man can.

But mean this that he may not serve God with his talent? Mean this that he may not contribute to the worship service? No and no. God wants him to cook well. God made the earth full of edible materials so that we might put them together and make gourmet meals. For this man to refrain from cooking because it has no place in a Sunday morning worship service would be disobedience. Furthermore he may contribute to the worship service in other ways: participation, singing, encouraging, building up his fellow believers. To this he also is called that he might glorify God.

The difference between these two ways he may worship God is a categorical difference. I think that as we leave this class and enter into eventual opportunities to assist believers know how to honor God with their lives we ourselves will be assisted by clear and concise categories of worship. The man’s vocation and calling, the culinary arts, is the means by which God desires Six-Day Worship. The man’s participation and involvement in his church body, in his case listening, encouraging, singing, and building-up, are the means by which God desires Seventh Day worship. Please don’t mistake me. I’m not arguing for abiding weight of the fourth commandment. I’m simply trying to assert that as God wanted Adam to bring him glory by gardening six days and resting one, God wants us to cultivate the earth with some of our time, and rest from working to worship him with the rest.

But the similarity between these two categories is also important. In both cases the intrinsic value is found in obedience. All worship must be rooted on obedience. And, as I believe the case of the Chef may demonstrate, all obedience brings honor to God. May we be found thoughtfully and wholeheartedly endeavoring to honor God by obedience in our six days, as well as our seventh.

Worship for God

Many times in discussion of corporate worship, such things as emotion, tradition, or preferences receive too high a value in the interaction, and the people involved depend upon them too heavily. Too much attention is given to these human perspectives of worship (which often can be selfish: “what do I want from worship”), and not enough consideration is given to what Scripture says regarding what God wants from us when we worship Him. This idea of having a biblically-based theology of worship has really come through to me during this course. Not only have I been able to read three quality books that look at worship in different ways and yet still retain the central theme (of how worship is about God and is to be done according to His Word), but also I have been able to learn much from the discussion in class and in these “blogs” themselves.
One area that we considered was the topic of corporate worship and what should be included in a regular weekly service. Many times the “worship wars” have become overly-focused on only the aspect of music and singing and have overlooked equally important elements such as prayer and the public reading of Scripture. If God wills for me to be a pastor, I do not want to forget about these important parts to the corporate worship service, nor do I want to pass over them quickly without giving them due thought. Burroughs rightfully delivers some castigating remarks regarding the wrong way in which we so often pray, and at the same time, he encourages his readers to pray in a manner that reflects a knowledge of who God really is. Give Praise to God presents some great ideas for the public reading of God’s Word, including instituting an agreed-upon systematic plan that will cover all of the Bible.
The elements (duties) of corporate worship should be a part of the service because Scripture gives God’s desire for them; they should be based on and filled with Scripture. Whether it is preaching, or parking in the Lord’s Table, or singing or praying or reading: God and His Word should be the sole focus. It is all about giving God the glory in the way in which He prescribes. This whole concept of praying, reading, singing, and preaching the Bible was a very important theme of this class and one that I want to hold on to in whatever ministry God has for me in which to serve Him. [word count: 420]

Worship as One

I have come to enjoy the definition for biblical worship that came from David Peterson’s book Engaging God, Worship is engaging with God on the terms he has given us. One area of worship that seems to have been ignored by many Christians is the nature of community that should be present in corporate worship. We are told to show our love for God by our love for each other, and we sense that corporate worship is worshipping God with others, as though we were all one body.

But we all decide how we will individually worship. We all decide who we will worship with. We see some who we know well as hypocrites for coming before God, even though we ourselves are fraught with sin. We all seek to get the most out of the sermon for ourselves, regardless of how it may affect others’ experience. This ought not be. In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul frowns upon Christians coming to the Lord’s table with no regard for others. It seems that Paul would much rather the believers give of themselves, and worship God AS ONE. It is the same in all of our worship. The Greek word for one another has a very unique feel to it. It is almost as if the word would be better translated one of each other as if each person was just a piece of one much greater thing.

If this were our mindset, that looking out for the interests of others was looking out for our own interests, it would have to change our conduct. We would show God how much we value him when we show his children how much we value them. This would be a beautiful picture of corporate worship.