Why Are We Here?

Think about what church really is. You finally getting back with the people you share the most important thing in common with, and you get to spend hours basking in it together.

If not to don’t feel like the world is all that hostile to you because you aren’t asking for it.

We come to get close to God. ()

It’s you letting your love for God overflow in love for one another as we attend to each others’ needs. (1 This. 5:11)

(, , , ,) Diagnose your heart. Here today you could feel delight, longing, or sorrow. If you feel none you are not worshiping. If you have no delight, you do not long for it, and do not feel sorrowful you do not have it you have no worship because you must worship in spirit.

As you sing

As you listen

Enjoyed for God and others by you

It’s about you () - worship is enjoyable and God is the best so worshiping him is the most enjoyable thing you can do. So, in this way it’s about you because you are getting immense joy from it.

It’s not about you - It’s not about what you “get out of it.” It’s not about your perceived gain. This is how people who aren’t worshiping God talk. This is how those who worship their own feeling good talk.

It’s about God - we are here to worship God and God commanded this. ()

It’s about your brothers and sisters () - We are a body and need each member, and not just logistically. We need you for our spiritual well being. The church is not the event that goes on here, your worship leader is replaceable. You need to be here for each other spiritually.

Fellowship means more than social hour. So don’t be with your friends, celebrate with people who have something to celebrate, mourn with people who have something to mourn. Get in each others’ lives to edify and encourage each other.

It’s about unbelievers - we do this as an example to unbelievers, some of whom are in the room.

In Our Minds

In our Singing

We need to care about the lyrics that we are singing and work to feel them with our whole hearts, but also test them with our whole minds.

When you sing you can’t just be feeling good, you need to feel good for a reason.

Often, a general feeling of “niceness” is really just you enjoying an atmosphere and being proud of yourself.

You need to sing those lyrics thinking them so that you are worshiping God and not just feeling nice because you like you.

In our preaching ()

Our preaching especially needs to be full of truth for our minds.

We often don’t view this as a time of worship, but we really should.

This is one of the times that our heart can react to God’s truth most clearly because it is most clearly set before usIn our preaching God has to be supreme, not our opinion, nor our likes, not our dislikes, not our politics, nothing but God.

Unfettered by traditional form ()

You have come here to worship God.

You haven’t come for the organ or the music or the words, you’ve come here for God because by his marvelous grace you can draw near! ()

So you want to be near! Don’t let this time be stolen from you by your own expectations of tradition and form

We can’t worship our worship time. We can’t enjoy this time more than we are enjoying God.

Should push towards a missional attitude

Missions exist because worship does not.

Notes

If you enjoy God, this time should fuel that fire and make you want to share this incredible God with others.

The Centrality of Worship to the Christian LifeWhy Are We Singing?

If you don’t want others to enjoy this God you likely aren’t enjoying this God much.

Ideas

The big thing might be how, but we often get the how wrong and think about “liturgy” ect. The real thing is to worship in spirit. From Piper: fuel of worship is truth of God, furnace is the spirit of man, the heat is the affections of man, but we don’t have the fire! That comes from the Holy SpiritThe life of a Christian means a life filled with worship all of the time! This happens because of the quickening of the Holy Spirit. Worship is all about your heart. This means that feeling is really important. Not just the physical sensations, but the way that we are commanded to have honoring emotions all through scripture. God is demanding of us our hearts. (Pg. 90 for emotions verses). These emotional but be genuine, spontaneous emotions. Like someone opening a gift, the emotion is an end in itself, it’s not contrived as a means to another end. It is the result of a fundamental orientation of the heart. This is why duty is so hazardous. Rather than it being my duty I want it to be my joy.

Scripture

1 pet 2:9We are everything Christ made us for the purpose of proclaiming his excellencies! Then Peter launches into his instruction on living. It should be done out of thanksgiving and joy in the one who has saved us, not out of dutyIsa 43:21God formed Israel for the purpose of them singing His praise. We are the “new Israel” and we should be doing the same thing! “The chief aim of main is the glorify God and enjoy Him forever”:22The “form” of worship has never been the important thing. What truly matters is our heartsMt. 15:7-9again, the form of worship is not the important thing, it is the heartMt. 5:23-24Relationship comes before the form of worship. What shows that we treasure God is when we act in accordance the things He says are important - when our values are in line with His. And what he says is to leave the form to mend the relationship if it comes to that. :1Our whole body is meant to be a sacrifice. :31John 4:1-26The how and The Who is what matters

The form is not what is important, what matters is the heart.

We must be well informed of God.

We are to be worshiping always in every way!

Worship is about the heart, meaning it’s about genuine, spontaneous emotions.

Worship requires that we treasure God above everything else.

This makes all of Christian life about a joy more than a duty.

Worship is the overflow of prizing God above everything else.

How do we do everything in worship? We be transformed so that our desires become His and then we what he would have us do!

Worship here is characterized by an aching for more more more because we aren’t there yet.

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