If only for a moment, take your eyes off yourself and your circumstances, off the ways of this world and all rival claimants, and look at who God is. Ponder His mighty deeds. This isn’t to say your soul or circumstances aren’t important. It simply means that you are in the hands of an omnipotent God whose ability to act on your behalf is equaled only by His passionate affection for you as His child, whose strength is without end and whose sovereignty covers the expanse of the heavens. God’s desire isn’t to minimize your life and struggles and disappointments. His intent is for you to gain hope, knowing that nothing can wrench you from the loving arms of a God like this!
Sam Storms

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Last week, among other wonderful experiences, Jo Ann and I had the privilege of renewing contact and fellowship with two of America's greatest leaders of worship, Ron and Patricia Owens. We first met them in 1977 in a prayer retreat in Philadelphia, PA. We had not seen them personally or talked with them since until here, although we had followed their ministry as it led them around the world teaching people to worship the Lord with pure hearts. They have written musicals, cantatas, books on worship, and hundreds of songs. Ron, a native of Canada, spent much of his earlier years in Switzerland with his missionary parents. Over the years they have been associated with Stephen Olford, Henry Blackaby, and other renowned leaders.

Saturday Ron and Patricia led a two hour workshop on worship which spoke powerfully to my heart. His style of teaching, singing, and praying all together was a refreshing approach to a hands-on study. It was classroom and lab work all combined.

Out of that experience I wrote down a number of provocative statements I heard. Because I want you to be challenged with your present understanding of and level of worship, I want to simply write those statements and ask that you think about each one for an extended period of time. Contemplate what it is saying. Consider whether or not you agree. Let each statement become a measuring device or an evaluation mechanism by which you can discern your own spiritual pilgrimage of worship.

1. The Definition Of Worship: To set the stage, I'll give you the definition which Ron gave: "The response of an adoring heart to the magnificence of God."

Think about that —- "response" —- "adoring heart" —- "magnificence" —- "God".

2. The Premise Of Worship: The premise is five-fold but simple . . . .

  1. A god is something to worship. It cannot be a god if it is not worshipped. If something is a god, it must be worshipped in order to be a god. Anything you worship is a god.

     

  2. Since God is the one and only true God, He both must be worshipped, and He is the only One to be worshipped.
  3. Man was created with an innate drive to worship . . . . and he will either worship something, or he will worship the one true God. It is an unavoidable drive to worship, and man is obliged to worship the One Who created him. He cannot keep from worshipping, but he can refuse to worship God.
  4. Following the rebellion and fall of man, he could no longer worship God because he was alienated from Him, so he turned to other things to worship . . . . but he still is driven to worship; he cannot help himself.
  5. God's act of redemption through Jesus Christ was an act of restoring the capacity for true worship. Once one becomes a believer in Jesus Christ through salvation, the most natural thing he should do is worship his redeemer God. Worship, therefore, just as worship is a part of the fiber of every human, worshipping God is a part of the very fiber and make up of a redeemed soul. Every believer was divinely designed and redemptively delivered to offer praise and worship from "an adoring heart to the magnificence of God."

    With all this in mind then, let's take a look at these following statements. Read them, my friend. Ponder them and think about them. Check your inner heart reaction to them. Go beyond your brain and your theological books. Look deep within your soul to see your true response to these remarks which Ron Owens made.

    3. Principles of Worship:

  6. "All true worship is transformational." All true worship . . . . (Romans 12:1-2). Simply put, if you ever enter into a true and genuine experience of worship, you will be changed for the better in some way. If there is no change, there has been no true worship.
  7. "When our knowledge of God is poor, our worship will be poor." In that we love the ones we know best, it is obvious that the better we know them, the more we will love them. The same is true with God. The more intimately we know Him, the more we'll understand His ways, His works, and His heart. That, in turn, will unleash waves of praise and adoration toward Him as we worship Him. Conversely, if we truly know little about God, there will be little incentive to worship Him. We worship most that which we know best.
  8. "Poor preaching produces poor worship." Why is that true? Because of the second statement. Most people get to know God based not on their own Bible study and prayer time, but based on the preaching of their pastors. That's a frightening thought for a preacher. It is the preaching of the Word of God, which should reveal something of His nature, His purposes, and His power, that motivates a believer to either worship or not worship. Like it or not, that decision depends to a large extent on how God is portrayed through the preaching. If the preaching is anointed and draws people toward Him, then worship will ultimately follow. If the preaching is poor, then there will be no inner incentive to cry out to God in praise and adoration.
  9. "Ever since the fall in the Garden, the battle has been over worship . . . . God, Satan, or Self." As noted earlier, man is created to worship, and he will do so. It's a matter of who will be worshipped. Who's winning your battle for your worship?
  10. "In leaning over to speak to the world, we must be careful not to fall in." In the context of worship, there are many approaches used to draw the unbeliever toward Christ, often used in our corporate services. It is a critical and fatal mistake to conclude that if we can be similar to the world, we will reach the world. Using the world's methods, or trying to appeal to the world on its terms is the last thing the Church should be doing. We are to reach the world through our differences, not our similarities. If we are similar to the world, then the unbeliever doesn't need us. They must see something different in us.

    Worship is for the believer, and not the unbeliever. An unbeliever cannot worship God. Jesus made it clear that He and He alone is the only way to God. Until a person has been born again by the saving blood of Jesus Christ, he may perform perfunctory worship exercises, but he can never worship. He has nothing about which to worship God. In that worship is the fountain out of which all Christian service flows ("present your bodies . . . which is your reasonable service of worship"), it stands to reason that an unbeliever can become interested, be intrigued, be convicted, and be drawn by what he has seen in the heart of one who truly knows God and worships Him.

    Conversely, it is impossible for a non-worshipping or weak-worshipping believer to sufficiently evangelize and witness to an unbeliever. Take a look at your soul winners and your witnesses in your church and you'll find they are worshippers. . . . and by that I don't mean that they attend worship services. Most worship services have little or no true worship in them. They're nothing more than perfunctory activities on a religious schedule made to impress each other. Take a look at those who do not witness, and you'll find they have no genuine life of worship, personal nor corporate. When one truly worships, he can't keep quiet about Jesus. If he doesn't really worship, or at best he simply worships worship, he has neither the will nor the substance for witnessing.

    FINALLY:

    So, be careful that you don't lean over too far as you try to speak to the world. Become a true worshipper. Lead your people to worship Him. No matter what books you have in your library on the subject of worship, I would urge you to purchase three:

    Let Us Worship by Judson Cornwall, publisher unknown.
    Worship: Believers Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and Ron Owens, published by Lifeway Press
    Return To Worship by Ron Owens, published by Broadman and Holman Publishers
    The first book is simply an excellent peek into the world of worship. The second is a wonderful daily devotional guide much like the Experiencing God workbook that will take you day by day through deepening understanding and experiences of worship. The third is a profound look at what true worship really is, how we have strayed, how we have been cheated, and how we can return to life-changing worship.

    Back in the 1980's in the last church I pastored, I began a series on the subject of worship which lasted five months. God transformed not only our services, but the lives of many of our members and also the outreach and ministry activities of the church. Ron commented last week that because we have too small a view of worship and because we had made worship instead of God to be the focus of our worship, we have ended up with all kinds of conflicts over preferences and traditions. When you truly learn to worship God, then the mode, the style, and the mechanics of worship no longer are important. The best way you'll ever resolve the conflicts in a church over what kind of music and instruments to use is to return God as the focal point of your worship.

    It's very simple, my friend . . . . for your ministry and mine. The heart of the matter is worship . . . . worshipping the true God with pure worship.

    Try it and see what happens. Though it will take time, it will change your life . . . . and your ministry.

    In His Bond and for His Kingdom,

    Bob Tolliver — Rom 1:11-12
    Copyright September, 2002
    Life Unlimited Ministries
    lifeunlimited@myexcel.com