Longing for His Presence this Sunday and Beyond...

Charles Spurgeon is one of my heroes. I can't believe I haven't named a son after him yet. Lord willing--there is still time. :)
I read this paragraph this week that lifted my heart in prayer--begging God to make this a reality in the preaching of the word on Sunday morning (and beyond)...

Have you ever seen an assembly listening to an orator all unmoved and stolid? Suddenly, the Holy Ghost has fallen on the speaker, and the King Himself has been vis­ibly set forth among them in the midst of the assembly, and all have felt as if they could leap to their feet and cry, 'Hallelujah, Hallelujah!' Then hearts beat fast, and souls leap high; for where Jesus is found His presence fills the place with delight.

He then shares this experience of the Holy Spirit's presence in the worship service and its silencing affect on the people...

More than once we were all so awe-struck with the so­lemnity of the meeting that we sat silent for some mo­ments while the Lord's Power appeared to overshadow us; and all I could do on such occasions was to pronounce the benediction, and say, 'Dear friends, we have had the Spirit of God here very manifestly tonight; let us go home and take care not to lose His gracious influence.' Then down came the blessing; the house was filled with hearers, and many souls were saved.

God, make Your power overshadow us. Prepare us for its weight. Give us Your blessing and save many souls...in Jesus' name, amen.

Raise Up Holy Hands - 1

I had a conversation with my brother, Matthew, who is currently in college (NBBC) which has led me to think and hopefully write on the topic of corporate worship and "raising hands." Here is the first installment:

I grew up in a devout Christian tradition that did not regularly practice the raising of hands in corporate worship. Other physical forms were expressed in corporate worship such as: bowing the head, closing the eyes (mainly in prayer), saying “Amen” (and other phrases of affirmation), occasionally (but with restraint) clapping hands, standing, sitting and kneeling.

It was not until seminary that I was exposed to a church tradition where people (including the pastor) raised their hand or hands during the songs and prayer of a corporate worship service. At first this was very strange to me and I felt it was excessively “showy” and unnecessarily distracting. Although the change has been slow and progressive I have now come to not only think differently about “hand raising” worshipers, I have become one myself. As a pastor of a church, I regularly worship with hands outstretched based on a strong conviction of its appropriateness and helpfulness as well as a careful acknowledgment (I pray) of the importance of a sincere heart and the dangerous temptation of spiritual showmanship.

How should we think about the physical expression of raising hands in corporate (or private worship)? To answer this question, I would like to first ask three foundational questions that help us answer the question of “hand-raising”.

1. What is the essence of worship? Before we can ask if hand-raising is legitimate we need to know what worship really is.
2. What physical expressions of worship do we see in the Bible? What examples of worship do we see practiced in the Old and New Testament that should give us an idea of acceptable physical forms of expression in worship?
3. What does the Bible command and prohibit in regards to worship? What does the Bible explicitly say about what we must do in worship and what we must not do in worship?

More to come...

Sermon - Worshipping with the Lord's Supper

Here is the manuscript for the sermon I preached last Sunday on Corporate Worship and the Lord's Supper.

The audio is not up yet but will be posted at gracewyomingmedia.com

I asked four questions regarding the Lord's Supper:

1. What is the Lord's Supper?
2. Why was the Lord's Supper given to the church?
3. Who ought to participate in the Lord's Supper?
4. What should participates expect to receive from the Lord's Supper?
   

How does the Lord's Supper Benefit Us?

I read this from J. C. Ryle today regarding the Lord's Supper and the benefits we hope to gain as we ponder the ponder the Lord's death:

The simplest statement of the benefit which a truehearted communicant may expect to receive from the Lord's Supper, is the strengthening and refreshing of our souls--clearer views of Christ and His atonement, clearer views of all the offices which Christ, fills as our Mediator and Advocate, clearer views of the complete redemption Christ has obtained for us by His substituted death on the cross, clearer views of our full and perfect acceptance in Christ before God, fresh reasons for deep repentance for sin, fresh reasons for lively faith--these are among the leading returns which a believer may confidently expect to get from his attendance at the Lord's Table. He that eats the bread and drinks the wine in a right spirit, will find himself drawn into closer communion with Christ, and will feel to know Him more, and understand Him better.

God Feeds Us in a Desert in Corporate Worship

Here is a great quote I read by Michael Horton regarding how God feeds us when we gather corporately to partake of the Lord's Supper.

Churches that follow the apostolic, Reformation faith are charismatic in the fullest sense of that term. That is, they believe that every service of Word and Sacrament is a time of signs and wonders. They eagerly anticipate--or, at least, should eagerly anticipate, the miraculous when they come to church, because God has promised that when we gather to worship and receive God's forgiveness, he will faithfully feed his flock in the wilderness. But we often become like the cynical generation of Israelites in the wilderness who, when God reaffirmed his promise to feed them, cried out, "What! Is the Lord going to spread out a banqueting table for us right here in the middle of the desert?" But that is precisely what God does. He is a wonder-working God who feeds us among the thorns and sand of our spiritual wasteland, when and where we are least expecting.

But what Shepherd gives his own flesh for food and his own blood for drink? What god gives his body for the life of his worshippers? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Yes, indeed! Our Savior declares, "Whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life."

Preparing Yourself for Pleasing Worship - Sermon

Here is the sermon audio and manuscript for Sunday, August 10th, 2008. I preaching on the subject - "What is Pleasing Worship?" and then discussed the necessity of preparing ourselves for corporate worship during the entire week.

Here were my 4 main answers to the question - "What Worship is Pleasing to God?"

1. Worship that pleases God is worship that is done in Spirit and Truth.
2. Worship that is pleasing to God always requires a proper heart.
3. Worship that is pleasing to God requires attentive ears to God’s Word.
4. Worship that is pleasing to God requires delighted anticipation.

Preparing for Corporate Worship - Sunday, August 10th

Douglas Wilson writes an exhortation on preparing for corporate worship:

every week at this time you hear an exhortation to prepare yourself for worship. But remember that these exhortations should be recalled at other times than just a few moments before we begin.

Prepare for the Lord's Day throughout the week. Exhort your children. Prepare them for it. Meditate on the subject of the sermon. Review the psalms and hymns that we list a week before. Use the bulletin to guide your prayers for those we lift up on the Lord's Day.

Prepare for this worship the night before. Set clothing aside so there is no frantic rush to find things at the last minute.

Rise a little early to compose your thoughts, and arrange the frame of your heart. Pray, Pay attention to what you eat and drink so that you don't have to interrupt your worship with trips to the restroom.

Teach your children to sit still, learning to pay attention. Be patient with those parents who have this considerable task in hand.

Every day, look forward to the opportunity we have to worship the Lord. Long for it, and pray that God would use what we do here for His glory in our community. It is His name we lift up, and because it is a name with great weight, we must pray that He will do this through us, for our strength is small.

Here is the Scripture passages for the sermon and the songs with lyrics.

How Should We View Corporate Worship? - Sermon

The audio was not recorded this Sunday, but here is the manuscript for my sermon that I preached on August 3rd. This is the second sermon from the series - "God's Glorious Gift of Corporate Worship."

In this sermon I asked the question - "How should we view corporate worship?"
I gave six observation that should inform our view of corporate worship.

1. Corporate Worship Has Always Been the Joyful Practice of God’s People in the Bible. (see manuscript for Scripture)

2. Corporate Worship is Implied by the Content and Nature of the Psalms

3. Corporate Worship is the Joyful Occupation of Heaven

4. The Nature of Corporate Worship brings more Glory to God than Private or Individual Worship.

5. Corporate Worship Brings More Edification than Private and Individual Worship.

6. Corporate Worship Reflects the Picture of the Church Better than Private and Individual Worship.

Given these truths – we should consider corporate worship as very significant, meaningful, worth pursuing, prioritizing, growing in…

Why Does God Want Us To Sing? Bob Kauflin

Why does God want our praise to be expressed in songs?

Psalms 47:6-7 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! (7) For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!

Here is a video clip of musician and pastor Bob Kauflin (author of "Jesus, Thank You, You Are the Way, O Great God) on why God wants us to sing:

If We Are Not Worshipping God, We Are Nothing

I though I would share with you something I read this week from N. T. Wright's book - For All God's Worth:

Though we sing with the tongues of men and of angels, if we are not truly worshipping the living God, we are noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. Though we organize the liturgy most beautifully, if it does not enable us to worship the living God, we are mere ballet-dancers. Though we repave the floor and reface the stonework, though we balance our budgets and attract all the tourists, if we are not worshipping God, we are nothing.

Worship is humble and glad; worship forgets itself in remembering God; worship celebrates the truth as God’s truth, not its own. True worship doesn’t put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn’t forced, isn’t half-hearted, doesn’t keep looking at its watch, doesn’t worry what the person in the next pew may be doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark.

Worship will never end; whether there be buildings, they will crumble; whether there be committees, they will fall asleep; whether there be budgets, they will add up to nothing. For we build for the present age, we discuss for the present age, and we pay for the present age; but when the age to come is here, the present age will be done away. For now we see the beauty of God through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; no we appreciate only part, but then we shall affirm and appreciate God, even as the living God has affirmed and appreciated us. So now our tasks are worship, mission, and management, these three; but the greatest of these is worship. (For All God’s Worship, N. T. Wright, pp. 8-9.)

Worship Is...Ascribing All Honor and Worth

In D. A. Carson's book Worship by the Book, he defines worship this way:

Worship is the proper response of all moral, sentient beings to God, ascribing all honor and worth to their Creator-God precisely because He is worthy, delightfully so. This side of the Fall, human worship of God properly responds to the redemptive provisions that God has graciously made. While all true worship is God-centered, Christian worship is no less Christ-centered. Empowered by the Spirit and in line with the stipulations of the new covenant, it manifests itself in all our living, finding its impulse in the gospel, which restores our relationship with our Redeemer-God and therefore, also, with our fellow image-bearers, our coworshipers. Such worship therefore manifests itself both in adoration and in action, both in the individual believer and in corporate worship, which is worship offered up in the context of the body of believers, who strive to align all the forms of their devout ascription of all worth to God with the panoply of new covenant mandates and examples that bring to fulfillment the glories of antecedent revelation and anticipate the consummation.

Corporate Worship - Why Does It Matter? - Sermon

This past Sunday I began a series on corporate worship. In the five weeks of this series I want to ask these questions:

1) Why does it matter?
This was the sermon from last Sunday and you can download it here or listen to it below.



2) How should we view corporate worship?
What does the Bible say and how does it relate to us as NT believers?

3) What difference should it make for us?

• How should it impact how we prepare for corporate worship throughout the week and on Sunday?
• What elements are necessary in corporate worship according to the Bible? The Bible must determine and guide what we do--what does it say about corporate worship and what it is we actually do when we gather? What do we do at Grace Church and how does this line up with the Bible?
• What practical difference should this make in our lives at Grace Church and in the worship services of Grace?
  

To open the sermon we began with a video clip on the significance of corporate worship (by John Piper). You can watch it below online or download it here.

God's Gracious Gift of Corporate Worship - Sermon Series

Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, I will begin a five part sermon series at Grace Church called "God's Gracious Gift of Corporate Worship." During these five weeks we will look at the concept of corporate worship: What does the Bible say about it? What should our view of it be? What are the essential elements of it? How do we prepare for it? What difference should it make at Grace Church and in our day to day lives? Please join us each week with the earnest prayer that God would help us receive God’s gracious gift of corporate worship in a greater way.