Monthly Archives: April 2013

Bible Study

Redeeming words and walk.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ sermon on Ephesians 5 takes a long time to make an important point: The church is not a morality club. The church does not call people to be good for the betterment of culture. We are called to live holy lives because it reflects our connection with our Holy God. We are not in the least concerned about living moral lives merely to help our children or to make our world a better place. Our goal is lofty. Our goal is to bring honor to God — the God we love and worship now, and the God we will serve and worship for all of eternity. The Christian life attempts to make real and substantive now what will be the reality of our life with God when we die.

Ephesians 5:3 and 5 repeats three classes of sins that must not even be named among those who believe: sexual immorality; all impurity; and coveteousness. Christians are called away from sexual immorality. Jesus famously called the people of his day, “this sinful and adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39; 16:4; Mark 8:38). He called them this because they were, as in our day. Today our generation (every generation) is a sinful, an evil, and adulterous generation. But Christians are not to live this way. Christians are to be pure in sexual matters. We are to be careful about the relationships we enter into. We are to be honoring to others, remembering that a woman or a man with whom we have an affair has family, friends, and people who love them. Our sin will not remain private. Every adulterous act is brought out into the light. It is the nature of the case that no adultery, no uncleanness goes undiscovered. Certainly God sees all we do. We cannot hide our sin from him. But more than that, our faith in God is devastated by such actions. We hurt the lives of other people. We destroy or severely damage our Christian witness. We are not unlike the people of this age, doing the very things that will bring the wrath of God upon the sons and daughters of men.

Paul goes further: “such things as must not even be named among you, as is proper among holy ones” (Ephesians 5:3). An obedient church would not spend any time dealing with the adultery and uncleannesses of its people. They would not be matters that come up. The focus of the people is on God and his worship. Their energy is on pleasing and serving him, doing his will, training others, reaching the lost, caring for those in need. They don’t have time or need for adultery. Such things, for the obedient and the faithful, are not even named. In the faithful church adultery is not even discussed among them in a corrective or disciplinary way. Imagine a church where there was no adultery.

It is important to notice that Paul repeats the same language and warning twice in just three verses. In 5:3 and in 5:5 the same words are used. Beginning in 5:5 there is a stern warning: “Everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Verse 6. Let no one decieve you with empy words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Verse 7. Therefore do not become partners with them.” Paul repeats the warning about the three sins,”adultery, impurity (uncleanness), an covetousness” and the shows that these sins are not merely unseemly, but they are disqualifiers from entering the kingdom of Christ and of God.

In the age of grace we quickly apply the forgiveness of sins to every sin and to any sinner. The adulterer caught in adultery may come before a church board or pastor and confess their sin in order to be restored or to have their guilt assuaged. But does the pastor tell them that they cannot inherit the kingdom of Christ and God? Does the board of the church identify this sin as exclusionary and a mark of God’s ultimate judgment?

The church is made up of former adulterers and filthy and idolatrous people who have been saved by the grace of God. The church is filled with people who used to do these things, but who no longer do them. The excuse that the person is addicted to sex or that they couldn’t help themselves does not stand against the categorical condemnation of these sins. These sins are not part of the Christian’s life. They cannot be part of the Christian’s life. They must not be so alien to the Christian’s experience that there is no need to mention them in the fellowship of true Christian people.

Harshness of the condemnation of these triple sins.

In the day of cheap grace we find that any condemnation is unacceptable. We find that telling anyone that their sin puts them beyond the grace of God seems too harsh and we are hesitant to tell them that what they did excludes them from the kingdom of Christ and of God. But is this not what Paul says?

The Gospel of Christ is transformative. If it is not transformative — if peoples’ lives are not changed — it is not the gospel that is at work in people. If a person continues to sin (Romans 6:1) and depends on the grace of God to restore and to restore and to restore, they have not understood the grace of God. Paul erupts in Romans 6 with an invective, we could say he is swearing, cursing, better to say he is absolutely condemning those who say they should keep on sinning that grace might abound. He cannot stand the thought of those who would excuse their bad behavior because God is gracious. They have not understood nor do they know the transforming grace of God. “May it never be!”

But ask an adulterer if they are willing to stop it for their love of Jesus Christ — ask them if they are willing to stop that the purity of the Church may be protected. Ask the adulterer if they are willing to stop so that they might grow in faith and in faithfulness to God. If they are a Christian they will stop it. They will hate what they have done. They will see the damage they have caused. They will know that God’s honor, God’s law, God’s character were assaulted by their sin. They will break away from the adultery and they will find the grace of God sufficient, abundant, competent to change their lives and to free them from the sin that entrapped them.

“Because of these things (these three sins) the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6). How can a Christian continue to do what brings the wrath of God upon those who will spend eternity in Hell?

Redeeming our walk.

Ephesians 5:8, “You were darkness … now you are light. Walk as children of light.” How do children of light live their lives? “It is found in all that is good and right and true … and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” The good and the right and the true are the things that we ought to be doing and focused on as we live our lives. Good. The things that mirror the nature and character of God. Right. The things that measure up to the moral character and the law of God. True. The things that are based on the existence of God and his involvement in every event of our lives. We form our choices based on the revelation of God’s Word and seek to make decisions not on human wisdom but on the wisdom of God’s Word. How different is this from the adulterer! He does what is bad, and wrong, and a lie. We begin to see how completely different the lives of Christian people must be. Good, Right, and True – Versus – Bad, Wrong, and Lying.

The instruction could not be clearer. The issue now becomes, “How will I live as a Christian?”

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definitions of glory

The way we think about the church matters.

I think worship should be measured by God’s delight in what we offer him, not what we get from the experience. Our greatest benefit comes when we are filled with the fulness of God (Ephesians 3:19).

I think that Christians should be identified in every case by their purity in sexual matters, by the stunning beauty of their choices and decisions in the way they live their lives in the presence of God, and by their absolute rejection of any desire for worldly fame and success and or the mere accumulation of riches as a worthy goals for God’s people. Christians live different.

I think who we are before God is infinitely more important than what we do in God’s name.

I think the church is a glorious gathering of people whose lives are filled with God.

I think church ought to be much simpler and far grander.

I think about church being different from what it being I see in America.
I think when the church works properly, everyone benefits.

I think that many people hired as pastors, aren’t.

I think worship of God is incredible.

I think many people who think they are Christians, aren’t.

I think worship is only possible for people who believe and love God. Seekers should never be the focus of a worship service. Makes no sense.

I think being a biblical local church is difficult. And worth it.

I think that faithfulness is the only measure of success a church should be concerned about.

I think people are precious and that there is no reason to use people to make a church great.

I think love is more important to the church than a building is.

I think the work of the church is imitating God. Not being a business.

I think the church is different from the world.

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Some theses about the nature of the church and the glory of God.

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Understanding Christ at the focus of God's glory.

Redeeming church

The church’s power comes from the likeness to Christ, and that alone.

The church is powerful in worship when it is most like Christ in character, in the choices Christians make, and in the love they have for God. The church is commanded to imitate Jesus Christ and to live (“walk”) like Christ lived (1 Corinthians 11:1; Ephesians 5:1, and others).

When the church does not imitate Christ, it fails in its witness and it fails in its worship. When it bears a resemblance to Christ and when it is holy and God-focused, its worship is sublime and the impact it has on the world is far-reaching. It only takes a few who are serious in their worship of God and their love for God to change the world.

Dwight L. Moody said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.” Why has the world not yet see that man or woman (in Moody’s day)? Moody was not the only solitary, obedient Christian to ever live. Moody is often quoted as an example of one who would “give his all for Christ” and as an inspiration for people who were not seeking Christ as they ought. But it is not correct to presume that the church has never “seen that man or woman” who is fully consecrated, and that there has never been a man who is completely set on serving and glorifying God. In fact, the New Testament presumes that those kinds of people would be just the sort who make up the Church (in the day that Paul wrote Ephesians).  Moody, I think, with an appreciation for the “lay it all on the line” attitude, is wrong. The church must be a place, an assembly of people who are faithful and consecrated, a “holy people,” or we are not being the Church at all. So the world has seen those kinds of people, people who are fully consecrated to God and totally given for Jesus Christ on lots of occasions throughout history. Perhaps less so today, but that can be corrected.

Redeeming the church is the work of Christ.

The effectiveness of the local church is the sum of the lives of those who live in it. If one is weak and failing, the whole church will be weakened and bear that failing, too. If the church is strong, those who are weak and indecisive will be helped to grow and to become the people that God envisioned when he thought of the church before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4a, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

The redemption of the Church was accomplished on the Cross and by the Resurrection. Our work of redemption is only to live as those who have been redeemed. To experience the power of God, the Spirit of God, and to know the love of God. We experience these gifts and graces in community.

The vision of the local church is grand. It is people who have been redeemed living their lives for the glory of God. It is people who were sinners, finding full forgiveness and the life of the Spirit of Christ within them, living for him, knowing Christ in their most inner self, and having a part in the eternal work of God here on the Earth. The church is where God most perfectly is worshiped and given glory now in this age. That is our work and in the future, in the age to come, that shall be our work forever.

Walking worthy.

Ephesians 4:1 calls Christians to live “worthy of the calling to which you were called” and then adding, “with all humility” then “with gentleness with patience” and concluding with “bearing with one another in love.”

The foundational relationship of the church is with God. Our mutual relationship, each of us individually and then all of us together, is with God. Our love for God unites us together to be a group of people who love God and serve him both alone and individually and then together as one Body. We experience unity of identity and purpose that is created by the same Spirit who lives within each of us. So we are “eager to maintain unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father who is over all, through all, and in all” (Ephesians 4:6).

The apostolic vision of the local church is staggeringly grand. The implications for our lives is transformational. But we who are in the church must live as those who were once dead and are now alive; as those who were lost and are now found; as those who were slaves to our passions and lusts and are now free of them. Christ has set us free.

We have received grace.

We live as those who have received the grace of God in full measure. Ephesians 4:7, “Grace has been given to each one according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” These gifts are tied to the descension of Christ to come to Earth and to live among us and to die as our Substitute and Redeemer. And these gifts are tied to his resurrection from the dead and his ascension back to Heaven. He came to be gracious to us. He rose to announce and publicly declare his work was not only finished but that his perfect sacrifice was acceptable to the Father. His return to Glory and his gift to us of the Spirit is to apply all his graces — all of them — to us and to fill us as his people with the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in our hearts), so that Christ would live in us who believe. We are truly, each of us, Temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) and together we are the Body of Christ.

The church is the vessel receiving the gifts of Christ.

Christ gave gifts to the church for “the building up of the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ …” The gifts are (in part) “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.” Christ fills all things with his many gifts (Ephesians 4:10b), but he fills his Church with his gifts so that it may be “equipped … for the work of ministry.”

Spiritual growth. Love for one another. Obedience to the Lord and Head of the Church. Doctrinal fidelity and faithfulness. Holiness. Truth-speaking. Building up the Body in love. These are the lofty evidences that the church is God-focused and that it is filled with the Spirit of Christ.

How could the Spirit of Christ indwell the hearts of dozens, hundreds of people and not shape them into the likeness of Christ? How could the Spirit of God give gifts to the church and not have the church brought to maturity where those who are a part of it are “no longer children tossed around by every wind of doctrine” or tricked by “human cunning” or corrupted by the “craftiness in deceitful schemes” of men (see Ephesians 4:14)? The Spirit of God, who is called the Spirit of Christ, he forms the believer into the likeness of the Savior in very specific and definitive ways.

Believers are made holy by Christ’s atonement as Christ is holy. They are obedient to God the Father, as Christ was obedient to the will of the Father. We will never be perfectly obedient in this life, but obedience must be present in the church — even the Lord’s prayer asks, “may your kingdom come and your will be done on Earth and it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Is that prayer not answered in the lives of God’s children who trust in Christ? See Romans 1:5 and 16:26 where the “obedience of faith” is mentioned as the goal of the apostolic ministry and as essential witness to the validity of one’s faith in Christ. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

The church is the focus of the glory of God in the world today.

Our destiny is to “attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Our faith unites us. The knowledge of the Son of God redeems and sanctifies us. We are brought to maturity in our faith and in our lives and labors, no longer being children — dependent, unknowing, unsure, easily misled, controlled, or confused, but moving toward maturity. We are mature, stable, solid in commitments, clear about what is important, focused on the glory of God in all things, laboring diligently with the days we have on Earth to see that Christ is worshiped and glorified as he ought to be worshiped and given glory. Ephesians 3:21, “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” That is the purpose of the Church.

Blue asters covered with dew drops

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Bible Study, Philosophy of ministry.

Redeeming Prayer

Redeeming Worship means that we do the things we ought to do, and that we don’t do the things we mustn’t do when we come to worship God.

When we turn our hearts, our eyes, our minds toward God, worship should become God-centered. All that we do in worship is about God, it is for God, and it is constrained by God’s direction for the event. There is perhaps nothing more arrogant, nothing exceeds the presumptuousness of one who determines what he will do in worship as an act of praise or in a design to give God glory, and doing so without  considering what God has said about how he should and must be worshiped. We, like the followers of Aaron at the foot of Mt. Sinai, melt our gold and contrive our devices and concoct our forms and our limericks, we silence the voice of God, melt out golden bobbles into an altar and dance merrily around the Golden Calf, thinking all is well, because it is done is in the name and for the sake of worship.

Praying to the Golden Calf

Our worship doesn’t fail so miserably as the Israelites, but we are prone to the same kinds of sin. We substitute what God has commanded for actions that we have invented. We are quick to dismiss the confession of sins as too obtuse or old-fashioned and our sins are unconfessed before our holy God. We set aside the reading of God’s Word because our focus is on new believers or seekers whom we hope to reach for Christ, and we starve believers in the pew and leave them spiritually emaciated, like those in the death camps, scarcely skin and bones, spiritually, because we have chosen to entertain or dazzle rather than to strengthen, feed, inform, mightily comfort in trial and sorrow, or fully prepare for battle those who are Christ’s.

First prayers

The content of the prayers in Ephesians opens a door into the spiritual life of the Apostle Paul. Some have said that a man at prayer is the most accurate representation of the condition of his soul and it is a point at which he is the most honest and the most God-focused.

Ephesians 1:15-17 — It was their faith in Christ (1:15) that moved the Apostle to pray for the people to whom he is writing (Ephesians was probably a circular letter to many churches in the Lycus Valley of Asia Minor, so there were many church-recipients of this letter). Their faith in Christ was the beginnning point of his prayers for them. We should pray differently for people who are Christians than for those who are not. Our prayers for Christians must be about the knowledge of God and our need to grow — “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened”  … “the hope to which he called you”  ‘the riches of the glorious inheritance”  “the greatness of the power at work in you” — all these prayers were for those who believed. The prayer was so that they might understand and walk in the great provisions that God has given them.

When people come to Christ, often all they know is that Christ died for their sins. They may not know that God desires for their hearts to be enlightened, for their minds to be instructed, for the greatness of power to be experienced, within their very lives. But to these ends, Paul “makes remembrance of them” in his prayers. He not only knows about them, but he chooses to remember them in prayer.

The pastor’s duty is to teach and preach, but it is also to pray. To remember to pray for his people. The pastor who does not pray for his people ought not to pastor them. This would be like the shepherd who allows the sheep to go hungry or to be eaten by wolves, who allows any other flock to envelope his own, or to permit thieves to take the sheep to expand their own flock.

The good shepherd prays for his people. He prays for them to know God, to know about God, and to walk with God. He prays that they might be given the Spirit of God to teach, to reveal, to open the Word of God. And he prays that the people of God would live by the power that raised Christ from the dead, and not in their own failing power.

The pastor prays honestly for his people. The Law of God exposes the thoughts and the intentions of the heart and the pastor knows their sins because he knows his own, as Scripture informs us.

But the prayers are not purely theological, dealing only with matters of heart and head. The majestic prayers in Ephesians lead us to live for Christ. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” These prayers for good works come from the Apostle of Grace. Paul prayed for the truth of our life with God to be translated into our daily life with God and how we live for God. There is a context for these good works — they were “prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (2:10). The workmanship of God, making the dead alive — teaching them about their spiritual riches and the certainty of their life with God forever (“inheritance”), this workmanship was given to us by grace, through the Spirit, so that our lives would be lived in these truths, in these realities, and in this power.

What a horrible waste to have the power of the resurrection poured into our lives, working in us a redemption that takes away all our sins and then to live in utter defeat, to know no peace, and to never experience the provision of God, the life of God, or the passion for God. That our lives would never be touched or changed or corrected or helped or made right because we are “his workmanship,” would be a tremendous failure.

Ephesians 3:14-21. Pulling the main verbs out of the prayer, here is a simplified sentence from this prayer:

“I bow my knees before the Father … that he may grant you to be strengthened with power by his Spirit … that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith … that you may have strength to comprehend … and to know the love of Christ … and be filled with the fulness of God.”

This is very different from praying for traveling mercies for MaryBeth and Homer as they go back up to Ohio, or Aunt Judy’s broken finger. Intercession and petitions are part of our prayer-life, but they only make sense after we have appropriated the grand gifts of God for our lives. When we are filled with the fulness of God, then when we turn to pray for Aunt Judy, we will pray for much more than for her broken finger, but for her heart to be filled, for her life to be dominated by the Spirit of Christ within, that she might comprehend the dimensions of the love of God. How much better our prayers are, when we first pray for the grander themes, the higher aspirations, the glorious content that God desires to pour into our lives. Then we are his workmanship. Then we can know and be filled with the fulness of God.

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Philosophy of ministry.

Redeeming worship

Worship is connected to the glory of God. If worship is aimed at another goal or target than the glory of God, it has fallen into a form of idolatry. Worship is not to entertain or delight an audience. It should be the expressions of praise and adoration, love and submission to God who alone is worthy of worship, from his children. Worship is not measured by what we gain from the experience, but by the content of our praises, the fullness of our focus upon God and on God alone, by our self-emptying in his presence, and above all, by the degree or measure by which we are motivated by the grace of God to enter into such a wonderful exercise. Worship is a sublime privilege.

Worship is shaped by our view of God. What we think of God; what we know about God; what we stake our lives on about God — and worship is an application of all these operations, focusing them into the experience of worship.

Much worship in the modern church fails because there are no qualifications for those who are invited to worship God. Seekers are asked to join in worship. Those who do not know God are invited along with every Christian to come into his presence with praise, to worship and bow down before the LORD our Maker. But such worship is, by definition, diluted (perhaps even deluded).

When a true worshiper comes to offer praises to God, and that Christian comes into the place where worship is offered with others who have no faith, no interest, there is no commonality, no agreement, no understand of the grand design and purpose of worship. There are a 1,000 different reasons for people to be in the room, and most which have little to do with ascribing praise to the Glorious God and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Such diluted purpose is confusing to the unbeliever and it is a harm to the true Christian.

Worship is for Christians only. Others may be invited to come and see, but they cannot, by the definition of worship, offer their praise and thanks for the grace of God, for the work of Christ, or for the many promises of the Bible to those who believe. Such confusion about those who qualify for worship is killing worship. Christians must redeem worship as the prerogative of believers alone.

We fall and we fail at worship.

The worship of God is a high and pristine aspiration. It is, in this life, something that we do incompletely, with mixed motives, we enter into it imprecisely and with inadequate understandings. We bring our preconceived notions, our previous experience with “worship” (as in “Worship is at 11 am Sunday Morning,” or “be a part the worship team” ), and therefore everyone has prejudices, longings, expectations, and ideals in mind when we think about worship or take steps to engage in it.

Worship is to be directed toward God because it longs to be worthy of him. But no matter how much we try, no how much we plan the experiences of worship or have numberous teams working and developing worship themes and goals, our worship in this life will always fail. We will fail in the sense that our words are not adequate, our love for God is not sufficient, our lives lived do not echo his majesty, our faith is not full, and our holiness is not like God’s.

So, with these constraints, our worship while we are still living on Earth will never meet the goal of the glory of God. It cannot be adequate, for we are humans offering praise to God. It cannot be worthy of the God who created the Universe, who redeemed us by Jesus Christ, or who gives us new life and hope by faith in him. We are just people. He is God.

Of course, worship, like everything in the Christian life, must be conducted by the grace of God and by faith in him. No worship will be perfect, but it should be God-focused. It must be a celebration of his grace toward us who believe. Worship, though we “lisp and stammer” in our offerings of praise (we don’t say what we should, and what we do say is insufficient and flawed), by Jesus Christ is acceptable to God.

Worship is not a place for invention. Worship is not an event where people come up with whatever they desire to give to God, just because they want to. Worship is essentially and always guided, constrained, and filled with content from the Word of God.

The Critical Question.

The most important question by which a worship service is measured is: What role and importance does God have in the service of worship? Is God absolutely central in all that is done? Are the songs offered to God? Are the prayers offered to God, and are they filled with praise and adoration, thanks and honor to God for what he has done? Can people hear from God in the worship service? How is the Word of God read and explained to God’s people? Is worship, from beginning to end, about God?

Unbelievers will tire quickly of “only talking about God all the time in worship.” Christians will love to talk with God, hear from God, offer God praise, and sing to God offering honor and glory to him. Unbelievers what to see what God will do for them. Christians want to understand more about who God is and they desire to know more and more of his will for their lives.

Worship for an unbeliever is a very different experience than the worship that a Christian offers to God. One is centered on God, the other is centered on themselves. One wants to know God, the other wants to know what God will do for them. One is learning how to live for God supremely and in all choices, the other is negotiating with God to do the least possible so they get the greatest return from God. The Christian comes to be in the presence of God. The unbeliever comes so God can be in their presence. Where is God in the worship service?

Worship is for God, but it benefits us who worship.

Christians are blessed by God when we worship him. He is pleased with us, he delights in our praises, and he accepts our offerings of praise and thanks when they are given by grace through faith.

Ephesians 1:3, God blesses us “in Christ with every spiritual blessing.” This is the resource from which worship wells up from within us. We have these resources of spiritual blessings, the truth about God, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the fulness of the Holy Spirit. We have the promises of God, the record of the miracles of God. We have the accounts of how God has revealed himself in history to real people, here on the Earth, and we know that the principles that Scripture teaches are true because God has affirmed the power, the truth, the accuracy, and the transforming potential of the Word of God. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing. All that God wants to give us, we have!

Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us … that we should be holy and blameless before him.” To be before God is to be in the position of worship and praise. It is to be in a relationship of close proximity to God.

Ephesians 1:6, Grace is introduced as “his glorious grace” by which he has blessed us in the Beloved (that is, in Jesus Christ). Grace is central to all access to God. When we are talking about salvation, it is through grace. When it is walking with God (as in Galatians) it is by grace. When we are talking about ascribing to God all glory, it is by grace that we do this.

Ephesians 1:7, We have “redemption” “in him” “the forgiveness of sins.” Worship must include what God has done for us. It must describe the forgiveness of sins. All access to God must deal with human sin. He is sinless, we are sinful. How can sinful people come into the presence of a Holy God? Answer. By Jesus Christ and his grace and redemption by which we can come. Worship is one way that we come into the presence of God.

Worship essentials.

Worshipers must be faithful people. Ephesians 1:1, “faithful in Christ Jesus” is the description of the Christians Paul was addressing. Our faithfulness today is just as central and important as in that day.

Are we: Believing, trusting, living in Christ Jesus, forgiven and forgiving, filled with grace and living by faith, and does the Spirit of God dwell within us?

Is worship grace-centered in all that is done in the name of “worship.’

Is worship God-centered from beginning to end?

Is the content and subject matter of worship found in the Word of God? Do we use the language, the words of Scripture in our worship services, or are we only hearing from man in the name of worship?

Summary.

Worship is about the glory of God, “to the praise of his glory” Ephesians 1:13. Worship says the words that bring glory to God. We teach people about the glory of our God. We believe that God is glorious. We labor diligently and at cost of our lives and time, for the glory of God.

Worship is adoration, it is an act of love to God. We worship God supremely because he loved us and invited us to love him. Worship is about love.

Worship is giving God his worth. In one sense we always come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). But worship calls us to something higher than we can reach, something greater that we can do, and to use words that we cannot express, yet. It is the aspiration within us that we might worship God by grace through faith, that we attempt it. Our insufficiencies in worship are more than compensated for by the greatness of his grace toward us who believe.

Worship is about God. It is designed for God. It is to bring us close to God. And in that closeness, we are overwhelmed and deeply and profoundly blessed by God. His delight in us, his love for us, in worship is turned to praise from us to him.

God is the only reason for worship.

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Worship

The receiving church. A received ministry.

The local church is people who receive the ministry of the Word. The reception of the Word is an act of faith by God’s people and this happens when they come under the faithful proclamation of God’s Word. They claim his Word as their own and then do all they can to live it out.

The receiving church would not be in competition with any other church in terms of size or budget. It has no need to envy another church or ministry in any way. The receiving church doesn’t measure itself by the latest trends nor does it need to have slick techniques and marketing strategies in order to grow. It grows, as the early church grew, when people who receive the Word are helped to grow in faith and faithfulness, and they experience in themselves what it is to give God more glory. The church should not labor to grow numerically. It must first seek to grow spiritually. It is God who gives the increase in spiritual maturity, then it is God who adds the numbers.

The receiving church doesn’t create a culture of excitement or build on emotions, but our hearts are filled, and our joy overflows in God and for no other reason. We gather to hear God’s Word and receive what he has to say to us directly by means of those who faithfully teach or by him who preaches. We do not stir people so they will be excited. We help them connect with God and the excitement takes care of itself.

The pastor in the receiving church prays for his people. The pastor loves his people. The pastor knows his sheep and tends them. The pastor doesn’t own the sheep and he is careful to remember that they belong to God, — but he provides for them and he is accountable to the Lord of the sheep to give them what they need. When the Word is received by God’s people, they hear and receive the Word of God into their lives with joy, sometimes with tears, but always with gratitude.

A received ministry sets people free to serve as God has called them. They are able to use their imaginations, plus prayer, guided by the Spirit who lives in them, and they serve as they are led out of their love for God and in obedience to the Word. They do not sow their faith just so that the church will grow. They labor diligently and at great cost, so that God may be more glorious.

The received ministry results in spiritual growth and real joy within God’s people. The chief and ultimate purpose of this ministry is to bring glory to God. The result is that we might become the people God wants us to be. The receiving church brings people to spiritual maturity so they can know more of God, so that he will receive from us more praise and honor and glory.

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