The Incalculable Value of Worshiping Together

I’ve been teaching a class on Wednesday nights for the past few weeks which seeks to get a better grasp on how the Psalmists lived and worshiped through the various seasons and trials of life. I was inspired by a series of sermons which dealt with this same topic, and so this study was born.

One topic which has reared its head at least twice during this study is the topic of worshiping with the Body of Christ. At various times in the Psalms, the psalmists declare that worshiping with God’s people in God’s sanctuary is where they found the answers to the questions and where they found refreshment from the trials of life – specifically we encountered this in Psalm 73 and in Psalm 28. This begs the question: What are the benefits of corporate worship?

Keeping in mind that worshiping is not only singing songs, worshiping with the Body of Christ benefits, not only ourselves, but everyone with whom we are worshiping. Your presence in the worship gathering exposes your soul to the concentrated activity of the Holy Spirit which flows from His activity in the individual hearts of every believer in the room. You expose yourself to the love of your brothers and sisters. You avail yourself to the hearing of the Word preached and the singing of praises, both of which speak Truth to your heart. You come under accountability through genuine fellowship. You can offer exhortations and encouragement to other believers with whom you fellowship. You encourage the believers around you when you actively participate in the singing of praises. You participate in modeling worship to the young or new believers in our midst. And your faithfulness to worship with the rest of the Body contributes to the overarching goal of seeing the lost in our midst become worshipers of Christ. Worshiping with the Body is indispensable if you wish to become mature in your faith.

To all of you who believe you can worship God just as effectively on your own without being connected to the rest of the body of Christ, I would beg you to consider the wisdom expressed by the psalmists. Whether you attend a mega-church or you attend a home church, worshiping with the rest of the Body of Christ is a basic need of every believer, and you would make Satan very happy to believe and practice otherwise. No, the church is not perfect, but neither are you, so stop stalling and come join the rest of us imperfect people in worshiping our perfect Redeemer!

“Until I Went Into the Sanctuary of God”

I’ve been here since 4 AM. The hours which I’ve spent here have been some of the most peaceful hours, most comforting hours, and most contented hours I’ve had in months. I’ve prayed, I’ve sang, I’ve read, I’ve studied and made journal entries. I’ve listened to the prayers of others, hearing their passionate pleas ascend to God. Some may question the reason for having these prayer vigils, and I will submit to you that until you come to the quiet and partake of and witness the quiet power of the Holy Spirit at work, you will never understand or comprehend why it is we embark upon these times of fervent prayer. My soul is ministered to simply by being here to witness, and much more by engaging with and crying out to the Holy Spirit.

“Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence . . . when I thought how to understand this, it seemed a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” Psalm 73:12-13, 16-17

May we all come to His sanctuary and be satisfied by His presence and His activity among His people. Amen.

"Until I Went Into the Sanctuary of God"

I’ve been here since 4 AM. The hours which I’ve spent here have been some of the most peaceful hours, most comforting hours, and most contented hours I’ve had in months. I’ve prayed, I’ve sang, I’ve read, I’ve studied and made journal entries. I’ve listened to the prayers of others, hearing their passionate pleas ascend to God. Some may question the reason for having these prayer vigils, and I will submit to you that until you come to the quiet and partake of and witness the quiet power of the Holy Spirit at work, you will never understand or comprehend why it is we embark upon these times of fervent prayer. My soul is ministered to simply by being here to witness, and much more by engaging with and crying out to the Holy Spirit.

“Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence . . . when I thought how to understand this, it seemed a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” Psalm 73:12-13, 16-17

May we all come to His sanctuary and be satisfied by His presence and His activity among His people. Amen.

Coffee with Jesus

I wanted to share with you all the biggest discovery of this year for me. This needs to begin with a confession. My life has been marked by inconsistency in regard to “quiet times” or whatever you want to call them (Personally, I eschew the use of that phrase, but that’s typically what everyone calls it, so I’ll call it a “quiet time” in this post.). That is until this year. 2008 is the first year – EVER – that I have had an eight month run of nearly perfect consistency. My best efforts in the past had been 2 maybe 3 months of consistent quiet times. The rest of the time was marked by a quiet time here, then skip 4-5 days and have another one, then have 2 or 3 days, then miss a week, ad nauseum.

There never was a lack of desire. I constantly desired to spend time with Jesus, but I was blowing it on a regular basis. This year, I resolved to do things differently and do something for which I never had much enthusiasm. I began keeping a journal of my quiet times. It did not take long, and I began to love it. I cannot tell you how much my spiritual walk has been enriched because I began taking notes about what I was reading, what the Lord was teaching me, and my thoughts on particular passages. Keeping a journal does a few specific things:

• It makes you deal with the passage at hand. In doing so, it prevents you from always defaulting to your favorite topics or pet passages.
• It helps you remember with more clarity what you have been learning. And if you forget, you can always refer back to your notes.
• If you teach a Bible study, your notes can come in handy as a supplement to your study materials.

Most importantly, my love for the Word, my love for Jesus has grown during this time. I can hardly stand missing a single morning. I always try to make it up on my lunch hour (it’s not the same, but I still enjoy it). My coffee with Jesus every morning has changed my life for the better.

I hope this offers you some encouragement if you are struggling like I was.

Where Have I Been?

I’ve let most of this summer slip away from me without hardly any blogging. My bad! It’s not that I’ve had nothing to say. I just haven’t sat down to say anything. One of the things that I enjoy most about sitting down and posting to this blog is that it gives me a chance to share with you the things that are on my heart, the challenges that are before me, the victories that are given to me, and the defeats I endure. All in hopes that you may be encouraged in your walk with Christ. Sorry that I’ve been somewhat A.W.O.L. over the last month and a half. I promise to do better.

When Sean, Trevor and myself went to the Together for the Gospel conference back in April, we brought home about 13 or 14 free books. Not bargain bin books, but really good books. I thought to myself that I’d finish all of these books about in time for the 2010 T4G conference, which would be perfect. Anyway, one of the books is a book called Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin. Bob is the Director of Worship Development for Sovereign Grace Ministries and I had the privilege to briefly meet him at the conference. A very tall man. The tallest worship leader I’ve ever met. But most of all, a humble servant and gracious individual. I gleaned all of that in about 3-4 minutes. Some people exude those characteristics and you sense it immediately. He’s one of them. His book is an excellent book. I’m only midway through it and already I want to start again from the beginning. It is a worship leader’s book, but there has been much content that, I believe, any believer would find helpfully challenging. I suggest that everyone who considers themselves a worshiper read it. (What other kind of Christian is there?)

He asks a question in the book and it is what I will leave you with to ponder. There is a chapter in the book dedicated entirely to shedding light on the role of the Holy Spirit in worship. One question from that chapter is this: “If the Holy Spirit stopped empowering the worship in your church this Sunday, would anyone notice?” A question worth pondering I think. Maybe some fitting follow up questions would be, “What is Holy Spirit empowered worship and how do I know I am participating in it?”

Worship Video

I thought this was a good video. Hope you gain from it.

Night of Praise and Sunday Morning Services

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for their kind words about the Night of Praise last Sunday night. It was a special night of worship, and God moved in the hearts of many of us very deeply. Everything that happened that night was the result of God’s kindness toward us. He decided to visit us in a special way and all glory is His.

Word has gotten back around to me that some people have coupled their complements upon the Night of Praise with an additional wish that Sunday mornings could be that good. At first, I took offense to that comment. Ultimately, though, it really made me sad. Comments like that display a core misunderstanding about what makes corporate worship powerful.

The Night of Praise was special because, in part, everyone who attended came with a singular goal – to worship God. That goal’s singular purpose alone makes a huge difference. This morning in our first service, I was disheartened by some of the stoic, blank looks people had on their faces. I could barely hear the congregation singing. The countenance of many people in this morning’s first service was very obviously not joyful. How can we expect Sunday morning to be powerful when we come in with no expectation and excitement about worshiping God?

I know some of you who are reading this will be quick to say that I cannot know what is in a person’s heart and that some people worship very much internally. That maybe true, but it is also true that your countenance reveals your heart. And I see those “internal” worshipers every week and even their countenance is uplifted when they worship. No one who is truly worshiping will be able to contain it completely within themselves. Every time the Scriptures describe a person who is worshiping, it is always evidenced by some outward sign of God’s activity in their heart. If you can show me a place in Scripture where a worshiper is described in terms that show him or her to be stoic and unmoved, I will apologize and recant what I have said here.

Sorry about the rant. But if you want Sunday mornings to have the same demonstration of power which you observed at the Night of Praise last week, then I suggest that next Sunday, you arrive with the same excitement and anticipation that you came with last Sunday night. I also suggest that you join me and the rest of our leaders in praying for Sunday morning. Another reason the Night of Praise was the way it was is because so much targeted prayer went toward it. We talked about this at prayer group. We all realized that for the last few months we had been specifically praying for the Night of Praise, but neglected to specifically pray the same things for Sunday morning. It was a little embarrassing to admit that to each other. So you have my word that a regular, repeating item in my prayers will be for Sunday morning. Join me in asking for God’s power to be evident.

Just as a public service announcement, the next Night of Praise will be this fall, after we have occupied our new building. It will be our first large event in the new facility and I am looking forward to it with great anticipation. Begin praying for that event today.

Revelation – My Favorite Worship Song

We’ve been doing this song for a couple of years now and it continues to be my favorite worship song. Here’s where I first heard the song. It is so powerful. For me, it’s almost like God leaked this one from the throne room of heaven. Now if we could just get a timpani and a timpanist