The Mustard Seed

Andrew Murray on Worship

The man who would truly worship God, would find and know and possess and enjoy God, must be in harmony with Him, must have the capacity for receiving Him. Because God is Spirit, we must worship in spirit. As God is, so His worshipper.

From With Christ in the School of Prayer

What's In Your Heart?

'Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord.' (2Chronicles 29:10)

Everything about covenant living comes back to man's own heart towards God. What's in your heart? In Hezekiah's heart was the desire to make a covenant with God. This heart attitude restored a nation. This heart attitude saw covenant established, the house of God cleansed, the priesthoood revived, worship restored, the passover reinstituted. The kingdom was advanced. Enemies were defeated. 

Hezekiah's heart and mind were towards God - not until late in his reign did he make the mistake of thinking of himself (see 2Kings 20:17-19; 2Chronicles 32:31).

Worship & Revelation

I recently had the opportunity to share the gospel with a lady I work with, all thanks to a question her son had asked her that she couldn’t answer. Travelling home in the car together after football practice one day, the son had said, ‘Mum, I know that Jesus died on the cross a long time ago, but where is he now?’ It’s a great question – a question that perhaps only a child would think to ask. Not able to answer it herself, but knowing that, as a Christian, I might be able to, she saw me in work the next day and asked me.

It was the beginning of a great conversation, in which I was able to tell her that, yes, Jesus did die on a cross and that God had raised him from the dead and that he had subsequently ascended into heaven and had sat down on his throne from where he had sent the Holy Spirit as he had promised (you can read all this, of course, in the Gospels and first two chapters of Acts). And the conversation got me thinking – how many Christians really know where Jesus is now? How many stop to think about what he is doing now? How many, when they come together to worship him with the rest of the church on a Sunday morning, are conscious of the fact that their Lord and Saviour is alive, ruling and reigning in the heavens and seated at the right hand of his Father in glory and majesty! This is how the writer to the Hebrews put it: ‘after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’ (Hebrews 1:3).

This has huge, practical implications for us in our worship. We do not worship a dead man – we worship a living God. We do not worship a fallen hero – we worship a risen conqueror. We do not worship a defeated leader – we worship a victorious King. Stop and think about that for a moment. When we come together as the church to worship our God, to sing praises to him, to pray to him, to give him thanks, to enjoy his presence, to listen to his voice and to encourage one another as we move in spiritual gifts, we are entering in to the presence of the most victorious, glorious, powerful, awesome person in the entire universe. We worship Jesus Christ and he is seated upon the throne of heaven.

The Holy Spirit is intent on showing us Jesus every time we meet together. The Holy Spirit loves to promote Jesus, to reveal Jesus, to show us Jesus. He loves to remind us that we are being made to be more and more and more like Jesus. He takes delight in reminding us that Christ is not only with us and for us but also that he lives in us. We see this portrayed beautifully in the Book of Revelation. In chapter 4, the apostle John is taken up into heaven in vision:

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. (Revelation 4:1-2)

I could go on quoting this amazing passage of Scripture, but I’ll stop there. (Although I will say, if you have a passion for worshipping God, spend some serious time reading the Book of Revelation – it’s full of song, it’s full of worship, it’s full of awesome descriptions of Jesus and the praise he inspires in heaven and on earth!) It’s clear from these two verses that the Holy Spirit only has one direction he wants us to look in – upwards, heavenwards, Christ-wards. He wants us, in our worship and devotion, to have eyes, hearts and minds focused completely on the Lord Jesus. ‘Come up here’, he says. It’s an invitation to look up, to go up, and to grow up. It’s an invitation to encounter and to be transformed. It’s an invitation to receive revelation and impartation. Why? Because ‘up’ is heavenwards and Christ-wards. ‘Up’ is where we belong because, as Paul tells the Ephesians, ‘up’, seated in the heavenly realms in Christ, is where we really live as Christians. Our worship of Jesus is not focused on us, centred on our problems or rooted in the earth. Our worship of Jesus is spiritual, heavenward and Christ-focused. Read the Book of Revelation and take note of the themes of its songs – they are unashamedly Christ-inspired and Christ-focused.

'Come up here,’ says the Spirit, ‘and I will show you’. I heard a great man of God some years ago say that revelation is the main repercussion in worshipping the Lord. It has stayed with me ever since: revelation is the main repercussion in worshipping the Lord. In worshipping Jesus, I see more of who he is; I see more of who I am; I see more of his purposes and plans. God is, after all, a God of revelation; if he wasn’t a God of revelation, none of us would exist! None of us know God by our own efforts or intellect; we know him because he has revealed himself to us. And he wants us to know him more. And we want to know him more, don’t we? That is why it’s key that we keep in our minds that when we worship Jesus we should expect greater and greater revelation of who he is and what he is doing. Worship is never about us; about our meetings, our agenda or our setlists. (Since when, by the way, did worship become something that needed a setlist?) Worship is all about Jesus.

And what does the Spirit show you? Well, it’s more who than what: he shows us a throne and, hallelujah, that throne is occupied. He shows us a throne in heaven and he shows us the one who sits on that throne. The phrase ‘to him who sits on the throne’ is repeated in Revelation 4 and 5 and is usually followed by ascriptions of worth to the one who sits on the throne: he is worthy to receive glory and honour and power and praise. Remember this: whenever you come to worship Jesus, whenever you determine that you’re going to worship him in spirit and in truth, the Holy Spirit wants to show you more of who Jesus is and that will always point you towards the throne in heaven. I’ve left the rest of the description in Revelation 4 and 5 for you to read for yourself. As you do so, be stirred afresh to worship Jesus, the one who sits on the throne of heaven.

Bryn Jones on Work

 

'In becoming a carpenter, Christ sanctified the workplace, illustrating to us by his own labours that work is the place for the holy as much as for the skilled. We need to be filled with the Spirit to do our daily work as much as we need to be filled with the Spirit to preach the gospel of Christ.' 

Worship: Who, Why, How?

Last night at All Nations Church we had our monthly Bible study evening, The Bakery. Our theme was 'Worship: Who, Why, How?'. We started by asking what we think of when we hear the word 'worship'? You can see the responses above.

Then we read together Revelation 4 and 5. From there we looked at who we worship, why we worship him and how we worship. The responses, below, were excellent and very inspiring!

Tony Ling on True Worship

'True worship is not singing songs, clapping, and raising hands in the presence of God. True worship is not shouting and jumping. It may include all those things, but true worship is laying down your life for God....Worship is giving myself utterly, totally, unconditionally to God.'

from The Lion and the Lamb: Volume One

David Peterson on Christian Worship and Service

'The place of Christian service or worship is in the uncleaness of the world, where there is unbelief and persecution! True participation in the Christian "alter" is to be found in accepting the disgrace of identifying with a crucified and rejected Messiah. Furthermore, since there is no abiding sacred refuge for Christians here, the challenge to confess Christ and serve him in the world is coupled with the challenge to seek the city which is to come.'

from Engaging with God

True Worship

One of my favourite Christian authors is AW Tozer. He was a pastor in the United States and Canada in the mid-twentieth century and displayed a deep, consistent concern that the church would recapture a true sense of the Lord’s presence among them and a deep and real knowledge of the God they served and worshipped. His books, including The Knowledge of the Holy, The Pursuit of God, and Whatever Happened to Worship?, are still in print and are wonderful, timeless classics. The opening of The Knowledge of the Holy has stayed with me every since I read it as a teenager: ‘What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.’ Ponder that for a moment. What comes into your mind when you think about God? And where have you developed that thought? Has it come from truth revealed by his Spirit through his Word? Has that truth from his Word been validated by experience in your life? (After all, you don’t want to know in theory that God is good and not ever experience his goodness!) Or have you allowed other things – disappointments, heartaches, prejudices – to creep in to create a false view of your heavenly Father?

What comes into our minds when we think about God is, I agree with Tozer, the most important thing about us. As Proverbs 23:7 tells us, ‘as a man thinks within himself, so he is’. And what we think about God, what we meditate on and focus our attention on, is so vitally important when it comes to worshipping him. That is why Jesus describes the worshippers his Father seeks as those who worship him ‘in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:23-24). Knowing the truth about God, Jesus says, sets you free; I’m sure you want to be free in your praise and adoration to the God you love! You see, worship is such a privilege, such a wonderful way to spend time and energy; we have in Jesus a Saviour who is awesome, majestic, glorious, holy, blameless, good, loving, gracious, merciful, faithful – I could go on and on! And so our attitude toward him and towards ourselves and brothers and sisters must be right in order to worship God acceptably. Have you ever considered that? It’s possible to worship God in a way that is unacceptable to him – it’s a humbling thought.

In order for us to understand better how we can worship God acceptably, we have to turn to the Scriptures. The Bible is the best guide to worshipping God; better than any hymn, better than any book, better than any worship leader, band or musician. We don’t have time here to explore its rich depths because, unsurprisingly, the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a book full exhortations and examples of worship. So I’m going to focus in on one of my favourite books in the Bible, the Book of Hebrews. Every time I read it, it inspires me to worship God. The Book of Hebrews is a wonderful book; it begins by describing to us the unparalleled majesty of Jesus: no angel or other created being can compare with his glory. Hebrews is a book full of hope and faith; it is a book full of exhortations to endure and admonitions to grow up. It makes clear, in no uncertain terms, that not only is Jesus the focus and attention of our worship but also that without his sacrificial death on the cross no-one would be able to worship God acceptably.

Let me make reference to two Scriptures at the end of the epistle in particular:

 

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)

 

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name. (Hebrews 13:14-15)

 

In these two passages the writer to the Hebrews gives us a valuable key in how we offer to God acceptable worship. We don’t worship God based on how we feel; we don’t worship him based on whether or not we like the songs we’re singing; and we don’t worship God either based on empty form or dead religion. What does the writer show us? That our worship of Jesus in this present age should always be in the light of the realities of the age to come. We are receiving, he tells us, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. How awesome that is! The kingdom of God is a major theme throughout the Bible and we don’t have time to do it justice here, but what we can say is that our worship of Jesus must be informed by the fact that we are receiving a kingdom that is unshakable – immovable, secure, eternal, and ever on the increase. Think of all that’s shaking in the world right now: governments, financial systems, ideologies. But one thing will never be shaken: the kingdom of God. Be thankful, therefore, that your destiny is certain and your hope secure: we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Our worship in this age, in this present world, should also be informed by the fact that our true home and true citizenship as Christians is in heaven. We are not looking for an earthly city as our home; we are ‘looking for the city that is to come’. What does this mean? Well, it refers to the pilgrim life of Abraham. In Hebrews 11:10 we are told Abraham ‘was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God’. This city, we discover in Scripture, is the church, the ‘heavenly Jerusalem’ (Hebrews 12:22). We don’t live here on earth as isolated, individual Christians: we are the church, the people of God, the Bride of Christ. And we will make ourselves ready, mature and spotless for Jesus’ coming (see Ephesians 4). Our worship plays a key part in that, because worship is a transforming experience: as we worship Jesus, he responds by giving us revelation of who he is, who we are and a greater understanding of his purposes. This is why those around the throne in the Book of Revelation never tire of singing his praises (see Revelation 4-5). As we focus on our future and fix our eyes on our destiny, therefore, we ‘continually offer a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name’. Worship goes from being an act performed to a life lived in loving service to our Saviour.

Watchman Nee on Praise

'Praise that is the outcome of effort has a labored and discordant note, but praise that wells up spontaneously from hearts at rest in him has always a pure, sweet tone.'

Watchman Nee, Sit, Walk, Stand

Best Books on Worship

I've been thinking recently about the best books I've read on worship and I've come up with five that I think have influenced me most thus far.

1) Bryn Jones: Worship: A Heart for God

(out of print but available second hand here)

I've written about this book on this blog before (here, here and here) but it's worth mentioning again. A fantastic book that, as its subtitle suggests, really gets to the heart of the matter when it comes to worship: loving God. This quote encapsulates the theme of the book:

"It's time that we remembered that, of all that we can be or do in the church of God, nothing is of greater value or of higher privilege than being a worshipper, a lover of God."

2) AW Tozer: Whatever Happened to Worship?

(available here) 

The book Tozer was working on when he died, it is typical Tozer: bringing to light the complacencies he saw in the church of his day and raising a call for the people of God to recapture that which they were in danger of losing. According to Tozer:

'It certainly is true that hardly anything is missing from our churches these days - except the most important thing. We are missing genuine and sacred offering of ourselves and our worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

3) AW Tozer: The Pursuit of God

(available here)

A second book on my list from Tozer and justifiably so. Here's a sample:

"The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately, and forever."

4) David Peterson: Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship

(out of print but available secondhand here)

By far the most 'theological' of the books, Peterson's book is dense and challenging at times but worth working through. I find it valuable to dip in and out of it rather than reading through it in a linear fashion; the chapter on Hebrews is particularly good.

Peterson says, for example, 'we begin to see what Christian worship means in the context of everyday life: it has to do with entertaining strangers, visiting prisoners, being faithful in marriage, trusting God to provide material needs and imitating the faith of Christian leaders'.

5) T. Austin-Sparks: The Recovering of The Lord's Testimony In Fullness

(available to read here)

Austin-Sparks' book is actually a study in Nehemiah but has one of the most inspiring and striking observations on worship:

'What is worship in its elementary principle? Well, it is just the element of motive in life - that is, worthwhileness to live, it being worth while to live. The very lowest, the very saddest and most tragic state to which anyone can come is to have lost all interest in life, to be saying, "There is nothing now for which to live, I have nothing to live for." You could not get lower than that. Life has been given up; life holds nothing worth while. That worthwhileness is the principle of worship. It is a motive for living, something for which to live, and that is present in all the world, except in those tragic realms where people have already given up life because they have no more interest and no more motive. I say that is the saddest and the most terrible thing that can ever come to anyone. Except where that obtains, worship is just this, that there is something worth while in being alive. That is the principle of worship.

Now you carry that into a much larger and higher realm. What is there to live for? What is the greatest thing for which to live? And there you bring worship into its right realm, and worship becomes this - "Why, the greatest thing to justify life and to give meaning and value and worthwhileness to life is the Lord!" Not this world, as something to be worshipped, nor its kingdoms, not its princes or its god; but the Lord being worthy, the most worth-while object in life, having all the worthwhileness of our very being and existence: so that He holds the full place, the central place; the Lord is the object always in view.

Worship is not going to some ecclesiastical building week by week, perhaps once or twice, to attend what is called Divine worship. That is not worship. That may be just empty form; that may be patronizing God. It may be anything short of the reality. Worship is a life thing, not a weekly thing; certainly not once a quarter at the "quarterly communion," or on the great feast days of the Church - Easter, Christmas and so on. Worship is this, that life is for the Lord. Every moment, every hour, every day, every week and every year - it is all for the Lord. That is worship. Our first thought in the morning is the Lord, and our last thought at night is the Lord; and although there are many occupations of mind and hand during the hours of the day, there is something behind the one who has been redeemed unto God that is always reaching out to Him.'