Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines: Chapter 5 Worship

8/2/2019 Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines: Chapter 5 Worship

1/24

Spiritual

Disciplines for

the Christian

Life

Donald S. Whitney

Wednesday 9 May 2012


2/24

Worship...for the

purpose ofgodliness

Chapter 5, Donald Whitney,Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life



3/24

Assume that the church service you

attend on a Sunday morning is intended

to honour, praise and glorify God.

Do you give 100%, or do you hold back(perhaps because of other people?)

Would he feel like it was all for him?

Is he neglected?

Do you go through the motions without

ever exerting yourself?

Do you sing songs?

Do you enjoy what other people do morethan you enjoy the guest of honour?

Does what happens there give all glory to

God - or is someone else often the focus

of attention?Wednesday 9 May 2012


4/24

Matt 4:10 Jesus said to him, Away from me,

Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord

your God, and serve him only

Psalm 95:6, Come, let us bow down inworship, let us kneel before the Lord our

Maker;

Let us be clear - God expects worship-

godliness without worship is unthinkable -

but it is possible to worship God in vain!

Matt 15:8-9, These people honor me with

their lips, but their hearts are far from me.They worship me in vain; their teachings aremerely human rules.

In order to avoid this we have to learn the

spiritual discipline of worship.Wednesday 9 May 2012


5/24

Worship is...focussing on and

responding to GodBefore offering a definition let us look at

what the Bible says worship is:

Thomas sees the risen Jesus and worshiphappens - John 20:28, Thomas said to him,

My Lord and my God!

Rev 4:8, shows unceasing worship,Each of

the four living creatures had six wings and wascovered with eyes all around, even under its

wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,

who was, and is, and is to come.Wednesday 9 May 2012


6/24

Then we see the elders casting their crowns

down in worship and declaring, Rev 4:11,You

are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and

honor and power, for you created all things, and by

your will they were created and have their being.

Then we see thousands upon thousands

worshipping, Rev 5:12-13,In a loud voice theywere saying:

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive

power and wealth and wisdom and strength and

honor and glory and praise!Then I heard everycreature in heaven and on earth and under the earthand on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: To

him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise

and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!Wednesday 9 May 2012


7/24

The word worship comes from the Saxon

word weorthscype which later became

worthship: to worship God is to ascribe the

proper worth to God, to magnify his

worthiness of praise, to approach and

address God as he is worthy.

He is worthy of all the worth and honour we

can give him - for he is the Lord of all the

earth, the creator and sustainer of the

universe, the judge of all the earth.

The more we focus on God the more weunderstand and appreciate how worthy he

isas a result we respond (as we might to

something else of beauty) by worshipping -

just as angelic beings do continually.Wednesday 9 May 2012


8/24

We are not yet in heaven - so how

do we see the Lord now?

- in creation, Rom 1:20- in his word, the Bible, 2 Tim

3:16, 2 Pet 1:20-21

- in Jesus Christ, Jn 1:1, Heb 1:1-2

In each case we need to ask theHoly Spirit to guide us in

worshipping, to aid us in

understanding, that we might see

him as he is.It is clear that we need to know

and understand the Bible in order

to worship God in truest form.



9/24

Worship often includes

words and actions, but it

goes beyond them to the

focus of the mind and

heart. Worship is the God-

centred focus and response

of the inner man; it is being

preoccupied with God...you

are worshipping God only

when you are focussed on

him and thinking of him.



10/24

Worship is...donein spirit and truth

The most profound text on worship in the NT

is John 4:23-24,Yet a time is coming and has now

come when the true worshipers will worship theFather in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the

kind of worshipers the Father seeks.God is spirit,and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and

in truth.To do this we must have Christ living within us

through repentance and faith - something that

comes through the action of the Holy Spirit

leading us to confess Jesus Christ is Lord.Wednesday 9 May 2012


11/24

Whitney says, To worship God in spirit

means to worship from the inside out. It

means to be sincere in our acts of worship.

No matter how spiritual the song...if youarent sincere then it isnt worship, its

hypocrisy.

The truth part of this comes in

worshipping according to the truth of

scripture - we worship God how he is

revealed in the Bible - in mercy and

justice, love and wrath etc.Where feelings for God are dead,

worship is deadJohn Piper - who

goes on to suggest how emotions

should be involved in worship...Wednesday 9 May 2012


12/24

Consider the analogy of a

wedding anniversary. Mine is

on December 21. Suppose onthis day I bring home a dozen

long-stemmed roses for Noel.

When she meets me at the door, I

hold out the roses, and she says,

O Johnny, theyre beautiful;

thank you and gives me a big

hug. Then suppose I hold up myhand and say matter-of-factly,

Dont mention it; its my

duty.



13/24

What happens? Is not the exercise of

duty a noble thing? Do not we honor

those we dutifully serve? Not much.Not if theres no heart in it. Dutiful

roses are a contradiction in terms. If

I am not moved by a spontaneous

affection for her as a person, theroses do not honor her. In fact, they

belittle her. They are a very thin

covering for the fact that she does

not have the worth or beauty in myeyes to kindle affection. All I can

muster is a calculated expression of

marital duty...



14/24

...The real duty of worship is not the outward duty to say or do

the liturgy. It is the inward duty, the command: Delight

yourself in the Lord! (Psalm 37:4). Be glad in the LORD, andrejoice! (Psalm 32:11).

The reason this is the real duty of worship is that it honors God,

while the empty performance of ritual does not. If I take my wife

out for the evening on our anniversary and she asks me, Why

do you do this? the answer that honors her most is Because

nothing makes me happier tonight than to be with you.

Its my duty is a dishonor to her.Its my joy is an honor...

How shall we honor God in worship? By saying, Its my duty?

Or by saying, Its my joy?



15/24

Head and heart, thought and emotions -

should be involved in our worship. If

we have a bias towards one it can distort

and mislead our worship - e.g. Emotionscan lead to warm feelings but a lack of

truth - truth over-emphasised can lead

to grim, dull hard services.

We have to get the balance right for our

worship to be in spirit and truth.

What if we feel spiritually dry - do we

stop attending worship services, arentwe hypocrites? No, we persevere

because it is the right thing to do (and

even our best worship is always

flawed)Wednesday 9 May 2012


16/24

We should still be looking for a

refreshing, a renewal of our

experience, but we should continue to

worship with other people and bring asacrifice of praise to the Lord.

Jesus promised a flow of the HSp in

the lives of every believer - sometimes

it just takes longer to get through the

dry times - Jn 7:38

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, Let

anyone who is thirsty come to me anddrink.Whoever believes in me, asScripture has said, rivers of living water

will flow from within them.By this hemeant the Spirit...



17/24

Worship is...expected both publicly andprivately

Heb 10:24-25And let us consider how we may

spur one another on toward love and good

deeds,not giving up meeting together,as someare in the habit of doing, but encouraging one

another...

...makes it clear meeting to worship

regularly with other believers is essential.The body 1 cor 12;2, building Eph 2:21, and

household Eph 2:19 ideas all seem to back

a non-isolationist view of the Christian

faith - relating an individual to the whole.Wednesday 9 May 2012


18/24

If you are able to be present there is no

substitute for meeting together - not

cds, tv or the internet.

Your personal devotional life might bewonderful - but still you should meet

with other believers. There are many

blessings which come when believers

meet together.

However there are also blessings

which are to be had in our own private

times with the Lord.- Jesus withdrew to lonely places to

pray Lk 5:16

- public worship will not excuse us

from secret worshipMartin LutherWednesday 9 May 2012


19/24

Many argue that you cannot worship

publicly on one day each week if you

do not worship privately each day.

Is it because we do not worship wellin private that our corporate worship

often dissatisfies us?Geoffrey Thomas

Whitney emphasises that private

worship is a source of great blessing -

strength, guidance, encouragement,

peace are all available each day - most

importantly is the chance to spendintimate time in the presence of our

Lord Jesus Christ - Jesus selectsyou

each day for this honour because he

wants to be with you.Wednesday 9 May 2012


20/24

Worship is...a discipline to becultivated

Without discipline our life of

worship will be thin and

inconsistent. Worship comes from,

flows from, a heart full of love and

devotion for God. Yet we have to

resist the danger of making it an

emotional choice - we disciplineourselves to do it - just as we are

disciplined in all other

relationships in our lives if we want

them to remain healthy.Wednesday 9 May 2012


21/24

Worship is...a discipline to becultivated

Worship is an end in that it focusses

on, and responds to, God/ It is a

means in that as we worship God we

become more like him. To become

more like God we have to focus on

him more - look at him more. Do not

worry if you have some failed quiettimes - remember you are looking at a

relationship, do the right things and

do the relational things. If stuck - ask

a mature christian for help.Wednesday 9 May 2012


22/24

More application

Will you commit yourself to the daily

discipline of worship?

If you do not worship God on sevendays a week, you do not worship him

on oneAW Tozer

Many disguise their poverty of

worship by disciplining their worshipevery Sunday, yet ignoring it the rest

of the week. The result is a lack of

growth in Christlikeness.Wednesday 9 May 2012


23/24

Will you put actual worship into your acts of worship?

David Clarkson, What you do in public worship, do it with all

your might. Shake off that slothful, indifferent, lukewarm

temper, which is so odious to God. Think it not enough topresent our bodies before the Lord. The worship of the body is but

the carcass of worship; it is soul worship that is the soul of

worship. Those that draw near with their lips only shall find God

ar enough from them; not only lips, and mouth, and tongue, but

mind, and heart, and affections; not only knee, and hand, and

eye, but heart, and conscience, and memory, must be pressed to

attend upon God in public worship. David says, not only myesh longs for Thee, but my soul thirsts for Thee.. Then will

the Lord draw near, when our whole man waits on Him; then

will the Lord be found, when we seek Him with our whole

heart.Wednesday 9 May 2012


24/24

Remember in heaven worship is24 hours /day for all eternity - if

it is dull for you, maybe you are

missing something of God?

US president Calvin Coolidge:

It is only when men

begin to worship thatthey begin to grow

Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines: Chapter 5 Worship

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